...I do descend. I have a lot of updates, but before we get to those I'd just like to say...

FUCK YOU FOX! FUCK YOU WITH A SANDPAPER CONDOM!

Some people might wonder, "What, oh what could possibly bring such an outburst to my delicate ears?" And to those people I would say "I just finished watching Firefly recently", and suddenly the universe would make sense again.

Goddamn corporate execs... Sandpaper you
assholes, *waves a piece of 40 grit* sandpaper.







Well happily, I've neither died nor abandoned dA on the side of the road like an unwanted pregnancy, however my time has suffered as of late from the student's plague. But it's not gone completely.

*sighs happily* I know if anyone's reading this they want to get to the meat of it, but I just want a minute... it feels good to be back here again, back updating this journal.

*chills for just a little bit longer with a martini and a cat*

...alright, that's enough of that. Let's start with the news first.

******************************************

1. City In The Dark continues to face a myriad of problems, the latest and most severe of which has been the recent collapse of my publisher, ~LostCauseMagazine. Recently I was informed by the chief editor, Joshua Goudreau, that he would not be able to publish my book after all, and that Lost Cause Publishing would be closing its doors indefinitely.

Now, I don't fault Josh any, because like any aspiring writer he has a host of personal responsibilities on top of dA, and I know how imperative it is to deal with certain issues before you try to take on anything new. Josh was one man bravely trying to do the work of ten, for the magazine and for dA alone, and that's not considering his real life responsibilities either.

Still, it's disappointing and definitely a bit frustrating. The entire time since my last announcement of City In The Dark, I've just been waiting and not doing anything with it, because I thought it was getting published. So getting blindsided like this, it really does kinda hit home with a hopeless feeling. So from this point on, any further editing or publishing that gets done with City In The Dark will be done through me.

...I can't say how long it will be at this point. I have to do everything now, which includes formatting the book correctly for publishing, numbering the pages and measuring borders, purchasing an ISBN, etc. Not to mention a few further edits which were kindly pointed out to me by ~XxJayBeexX. But I have not given up, and I will not give up on it, of that you can be sure.




2. The primary reason right now for my absence, and most common time suck for dA writers and artists, is college. Yes, I've reentered college to study music. Currently my major is Music Theory and Composition, but in the fall it gets changed to Sound Technology Arts. I'll be learning how to mix, remix, and record music for albums, for the film industry, and for just about anything that regularly makes use of musical talents. If you've ever studied music before, you know how much study and practice is involved, and if you haven't, well you'll just have to imagine, but music is one of the most academically demanding subjects that can BE studied.

Speaking of this, I'm sure it's been suggested before but why doesn't dA have a musical category? Something to upload written compositions with, or even better, mixes and remixes? Is it a copyright issue maybe?

So anyways, the study of music is what's occupying most of my time lately, but I'm trying to make some for dA again. I doubt that I'll be nearly as involved in dA as I was a year ago, but I will try to make time to continue my writing and post it, and for critiques when I feel I can provide them.


3. So let's see... book... college... let's move on to old acquaintances. Time to renew some of them.

=smoking-mirrors - (Sorry I've been a ghost lately) Miss Katy is not feeling very well lately, and is falling prey to the student's sickness as well, but she still manages to at least update her journal on a semi-regular basis. I don't know how this woman does it, but kudos. She's still the author of fantastic poetry and prose, and you'd be doing yourself a kindness to read some of it.

`alienhead - Todd has become supremely successful (at least by dA standards) in his own right. He took his gallery down to put some of it up on his website I believe, [link]. If you ever had the chance to read Todd's work when it was here, you know the man has talent, and if you've ever talked to him, you know he hasn't let that go to his head. He's a good author, and deserving of his steady progression to success, especially being that through sheer determination he's making it happen. At the very least drop by his website and give him a look. I believe he still peruses #dAlit from time to time, #LitFFS if it's still there, and probably the other major writing rooms as well. If you see him pop in, be sure to say hi.

~NyxErebus - My very attractive and wonderfully sarcastic friend and current music mentor. She's a good photographer, and you'll see her work on the cover of City In The Dark.



4. I have a new, and moderately powerful gaming machine with which to wreak my havoc and embark upon my campaign of world conquest.

BEHOLD! The pirate vessel Demon Dauntless!:

AMD 3000 Dual Core processor
Nvidia 8600 256Mb video card
ASUS motherboard
750w power supply
3GB RAM
1 300GB hard drive
1 500GB hard drive (on order)
1 40GB hard drive
DVD Burner
22" Flatscreen LCD monitor
5.1 stereo surround sound system

And this isn't taking into account the software that's on the thing too. Yeah I know most people don't give a shit, but it's my computer, I put a lot of work into it, and I'm fucking showing it off.


5. For now that's about it. There was more I was gonna write, but I forgot what it was. When I remember... well I prolly still won't write it, but I'll make a note of it so I don't forget the next time I pop up a journal. Until then, back to the horse porn whence you came!