News

1: Anonymity The first bit of news is that my anonymity has been stripped almost away, now that I've changed my name on Blogger. A course in which I am enrolled will shortly have a class blog on which we are expected to communicate. I had the choice of giving my school e-mail address as my blogger account, or to give an existing account address. After some thought I chose to give my existing address, in the name of Internet persona continuity and with the hopes of luring classmates to my blog. Reasons I might not included the delicate balance between the professionalism of the classroom and the far less formal approach I take here, and the requirement of exposing my identity here. I will grant that this blog seems less informal than some, but it's also not exactly university-level academia, either.

2: Publication The second bit of news is something I withheld in the name of anonymity. There is now no point in keeping it secret. I will be published in an anthology of short work this coming April. In the next month I have a considerable amount of work preparing material for this anthology and editing my co-authors' material. After this I will have responsibilities in preparing for the book launch, but these next few weeks will be the most hectic. By and large nothing that I will have in the anthology will be posted here, as I've been keeping it secret and safe from public eyes for this auspicious moment. Perhaps you will hear more about that process as time goes on. Just so you know, the anthology will be entitled Lake Effect 4, and published by the Artful Codger Press. Carolyn Smart will be listed and compiler and editor. Before you get too excited, it's limited printing and not-for-profit (which means no royalties whatsoever).

3: Absence The above posts, primarily the publication one, may mean I will be going through a posting hiatus for a little while. My apologies. I will still post for time to time, but these posts may not be quite as interesting, either. Between the insane amount of work I have on my plate and the fact that I must to some extent contribute to another blog will take a lot out of me, particularly my creativity.

4: Webcomic My new-found addiction to reading webcomic archives may also contribute to my absence here. I have become extraordinarily hooked on reading Questionable Content. The artwork isn't superb, but I'm amused by the style of humour and attached, very much, to the characters. I understand that QC operates on some level as wish-fulfilment for any shy nerd, but I also find that the female characters are just as intriguing and engaging. This webcomic deserves a proper review from me at some point, but that point is not now. As a parting note, though, I find I have lately become attracted to specialized, also snobby or esoteric webcomics: xkcd and their emphasis on programming, physics, and advanced mathematics; Penny-Arcade and their inhabitation of the video game industry; Questionable Content and their music snobbery, literary and philosophical allusions, and general Pop Nerd references. My only desire is that I were to be funny enough and good enough an artist that I could produce my own wildly-popular-yet-esoteric webcomic, as these successfully have.

5: Readings It is after 4:30 and I still have several pages to read for tomorrow, so I should end this post now and hop on that. Hope to hear from you!

P.S. 6: Comments I am impressed/confused about the commenting popularity for the Wall-E post. People've been quiet lately, and then 2/3 of my commenters said something about Wall-E. Even Kay, who's spoken here only once before, commented. Cuh-raziness.