The intensive Academic Writing class has ended, leaving me with a bit more free time than I’ve had this last month. My linguistics class, aka the interesting one, has started, making me think about conlanging again. And Loki has started posting stuff about his work again over at his blog.
All this made me open up my own map again yesterday, for the first time since July. Back then, I redrew it completely, from scratch, and promptly forgot about it once I started working on the graveyards. So when I opened it again yesterday, I realized two things. 1) I’ve been making plans for the wrong map for the past week, and 2) I hate this map.
Seriously, I hate it. I hate the look and the layout and the colors and the shapes! Had I a printer I would print it out, just so I could crumple it up and throw it out the window. I cannot understand why on Earth I decided to replace my old map with this offal.
That is, I could not understand, until I opened my old map and discovered how immensely poorly drawn it was.
As a result of this, I’m throwing it all out. I’m redrawing, much larger, based on the old map, not the new.
In the spirit of the fresh start, I’m also throwing out the conlang fragments I’ve posted about in this category. It wasn’t really going anywhere anyway. I’m hoping the linguistics class will prove inspirational and educational for when I’m trying that again.
I’m feeling good about this.
Loki’s timing is a bit off here, as I actually set aside time today to write here. Unless of course he used “currently” to mean “at this precise moment, 1:11 AM, September 16th” or a similarly narrow definition. Knowing him, he probably did.
Anyways, over a month has passed since the post where I said I was leaving for Bergen. Wow, where on earth did all the time go?
Actually, I have a good idea where all that time went. A good portion of it went to Babylon 5, which I’m fortunately almost finished with now. Very good show, that.
Another sizable chunk went to schoolwork. The intensive class Academic Writing has consumed many a night lately. When you cram a ten point subject into five weeks, it figures that it’ll take a lot of time. (For comparison, the other two subjects I’m taking this year, each also worth ten points, last at least fifteen weeks each.) Academic Writing, too, is almost over now.
And I’m not dead! I’m living and breathing and learning in Bergen, the city of rain, the Seattle of Europe. (Actually, I’m fairly sure Bergen was there first, so it should be that Seattle is the Bergen of America.) The city from whence the Black Death spread across Norway and killed off half the population. A city that, like Trondheim, is a much better choice for capital than Oslo. A city I could easily see myself living in, if not for the terrible lack of diverse products in grocery stores.
In my last post I said that Raptus was about to start. It is now over, leaving me with much less money than before, but also a nice little collection of comics containing stories by Carl Barks and Don Rosa. I also got hold of Rosa’s “Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion” yesterday, so I have plenty and plenty of reading material. Especially if you factor in “A Game of Thrones”, “Eye of the Labyrinth” and “Deadhouse Gates” as well.
Hm, I foresee much more time vanishing in the near future.
So, what else has happened the last month?
Andy Weir has put Casey and Andy on indefinite hiatus, in order to focus his efforts on Cheshire Crossing. While I’m sad that we have to wait for the grand finale of C&A, I’m also excited that this probably means less waiting for the next issue of Cheshire Crossing. Weir reports that he is sick of C&A, which is extremely sad, and that he might not finish the arc at all, which is nothing short of tragic. I certainly hope that he feels better about it when the CC-issue is finished, it would be a crying shame for a great comic like Casey and Andy to end in the middle of its final arc.
Sluggy Freelance has started a new Oasis-story. Pardon me while I squee. It even looks like we’ll get some actual, definite answers in this one, though I’m not taking anything for granted when it comes to Sluggy. I’ll hold my tongue until it is over, I think, though I have to say that I love the new supporting characters. The setup has all the markings of a truly great sitcom, and it’s a shame there isn’t one like it on TV already.
The Gods of Arr-Kelaan have lost Ronson! Eeek! Well, no, not really eeek, we all know he’ll be back, as we have seen him appear in stories set at after the current one, but this should still be a very interesting story.
No doubt a lot of other stuff has happened as well, but this is all I can think of at the moment. Any omissions will have to get separate posts later, an arrangement nobody should be angry about.
Now I have to go fill the fridge.
I need to write something here, preferably something long and summary-like, explaining why and what has happened recently, and to put some of my thoughts on other subjects down as well. Not now. Not this weekend, as Raptus, the comic convention, starts tomorrow.
Right now, I just want to say that this is the best Irwin tribute strip so far.