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"Apparently 'things happen' around here."

9th December 2007

Gallery updated! There are about 12 new pieces available. I got a graphics tablet for my birthday this year (love you, Dad!), so I've been testing it out on some greyscale character art (predominantly humanoid). Loving it. ^^ I'll start working on colour soon.

House hunting. I have a nice apartment in my sights. Buying property is scary. I still can't comprehend how people can go through the prime of their lives under mortgage. :/ It's seriously depressing.

Job hunting. My current employer, whom I've been with for just over a year now, is offering a permanent position. I'll apply for it, but I'm also looking elsewhere (notably Blizzard and Bioware, but also local).

Writing. A sequel to The Black Ankh is approximately 30,000 words long, so far. Theoretically, Book 1 is complete and I could update it right now, but I'm procrastinating. For the last book of TBA I submitted it in parts on Fanfiction.Net. The site has a Comments function, where readers can leave notes and critique, and I found it an excellent motivator to finishing the blasted thing. ;)

Role Playing. Can't get enough of it. ;)

Computer Gaming: Recent purchases are a few old ones. Planescape: Torment I finished a couple of months back. Excellent story. Definitely not for those who don't like reading, or for those who prefer lots of hack-n-slash. Heroes of Might and Magic V: I've always love the HoMM series. I was warned of this one pre-purchase that it was basically only worth buying for the intro movie (admittedly cool, but I can't help thinking Prince Nicholai is a clone of Warcraft 3's (much cuter, but eviller) Arthas. Grim Fandango: I've heard excellent things of this old LucasArts game. Haven't started it yet, but looking forward to it. :) Lastly, I got UFO Aftermath. I don't know what it's like. I remember playing the first of the UFO games a long time ago, and loved it, so I'm hoping I get similar enjoyment from this one.

Online games have taken second place for now! I need fresh entertainment... and a free phoneline. ;)

22nd April 2007

Gallery updated! A couple of pics from this year, several from last year, and another two I dug up from 2005. I wanted to upload another colour pic, but it's not finished yet (stupid backgrounds >.<). Enjoy! :)

Current soundtrack: Tank! (from Cowboy Bebop). I just finished watching the series, and the movie. Not bad! Music rocks. :) I prefer the story in Trigun, though.

18th March 2007

Major updating of most sections. Updated defunct Links, added some new ones (mostly in the Humour section), deleted a few as well. Updated Stories with The Black Ankh, which is finished (and has been available through Dragon Press and Fanfiction.Net until now), and a new Rants section. Updated About Me with new and interesting happenings. The Gallery has not yet been updated, but I have a whole lot of new pictures that I plan to get up there soon, from both last year and this year. 

Current soundtracks of choice are Pirates of the Caribbean (both movies). Current TV shows of choice are NCIS and Heroes. Current employment role is temp office work for Origin Energy.

I love roleplaying. Some months ago, Ultima Legacy took a turn for the worse and there was a fallout between certain players, myself included. To cut a long and depressing story short, the server again went into a stall as people wandered off in different directions. I kept some quests running for a while until it became apparent that most people weren't inclined to put as much effort into the game as I was (and that effort included getting up around 6am in the morning to cater for players in different timezones... ultimately not worth it). Since my time became even more curtailed when I became employed again, and no other GMs were doing anything, I put a proposal forward to the remaining players which has so far been successful and enjoyed by those who have chosen to take part. The roleplaying is now within the UL forum and is so far progressing well. And hey, it beats looking at an empty server. ;) (Or it would, if the server was even active these days.) Anyone who wants to RP Ultima on a casual basis is welcome. You can find the link in the appropriate section, and all you need to bring with you is a little creativity, a sense of fun and a love of Ultima. :)

Also in the past few months I was introduced to some real life RPers through a girl who came to my church for a few months. Pen and paper roleplaying! Ye Virtues, I hadn't done this since that brief time at RMIT. I love it! I love the players! The GMs rock! I'm so happy. ^^ Is this what it's like to have a social life? ;) It has filled up a void that's been there since serverside UL (and many friendships connected to it) fell apart. The roleplaying is back, and new friendships have been forged. Me is happy. It's nice to have some friends on my side of the world who have the same interests and are just cool to hang out with. :)

In closing, while employment isn't currently where I want to be (though I am getting paid), socially I'm pretty much exactly where I've wanted to be for most of my life.

I keep wondering if I'll ever get a perfect balance of the two.

13th May 2006

Another Gallery update. There are a few more pics for your perusal, including a very old colour pencil pic I did in 1997 (my last year of High School). I was quite proud of it, so I figured I should upload it. Makes me wonder if I should try my hand at colour pencil stuff again, but remembering colouring all that sky makes my right hand spasm in panic. :p

What else can I say? The Black Ankh is being updated, but not on my site (waiting until it's done so I can upload the whole damn thing). If you want to read what's available so far, you can check out www.fanfiction.net under the Games/Ultima section. Feel free to post reviews too. I like reviews. ^^

I withdrew from that course I mentioned in January. After going along to it for a while I just found I wasn't enjoying it. It wasn't teaching me anything and I didn't find it much fun when compared with my RMIT course a few years back. Ah well.

The job hunting continues...

27th Jan 2006

I've updated the Gallery! There are a few more pics for your perusal.

So much has happened in the last half year, but not enough that I can't cram it into a mere paragraph or two. :) Firstly, Ultima V: Lazarus has finally been finished! After five years! The fan response has been utterly fantastic. It wouldn't have been worth it without all their support. :) Team Lazarus is still at work on a 1.2 patch to fix up all the bugs we can, which we hope'll be finished next month. Even so, when people are saying how much they love the game bugs included, you know you've helped make something special. :)

In other news, I'm currently unemployed! I love free time! So besides looking into jobs at Bioware and various other gaming companies, I'm just lounging around fiddling with this or that, or playing Guild Wars. So if any game companies are looking for dialogue writers and are willing to pay money... ;)

Also enrolled into another university course this year. It's a BA of Arts: Professional and Creative Writing. I get credit because of my Diploma of Arts. It'll be a nice credential to add to the resume, and something to kick me back into writing gear. I still have to finish The Black Ankh. :p I feel so guilty it's taking this long...

4th June 2005

Another coloured dragon in the gallery! I actually have a few pictures on the backburner which are pencil and more or less finished, but I keep putting off updating things. Lazarus dialogues aside, I've been reading over TBA in preparation for re-writing the last chapter.

This weekend will be pretty busy... my mum and I are sponsoring my flatmate Alison to go on the Walk to Emmaus. I'll be doing a lot of driving, but it'll be totally worth it. ;) She's going to have a *blast*. 

14th May 2005

Coloured dragon in the gallery. Is it egotistical to have one of your own pieces of art as your desktop wallpaper?

28th March 2005

New pictures! I've started getting into colouring, as you can see if you take a look. You can also see that I've started drawing humans (oh no! What's wrong with me?). At least it's keeping the masses in Ultima Legacy entertained. ^^

15th March 2005

Wow, been a long time since the last update. I suppose you can blame the Ultima V: Lazarus remake for that. And Ultima Legacy. And various games that I've collected in the mean time, like Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale 2, and so on and so forth. :) Just because I haven't updated in yonks doesn't mean I haven't been productive, though. I've got some new pictures, which I *might* get around to uploading tonight, though if I don't, I've put some of them up on my Elfwood site. I figured that since I was updating Dragon Press I might as well throw something up here to let those of you who don't frequent the motherload of Ultima fanfiction that I'm still alive, and still doing stuff.

Even if that stuff is mostly dialogue for UV:L.

Don't worry! For those of you who've been long awaiting the end of The Black Ankh... which I promised 2 years ago... :p I haven't forgotten it. It's just on the backburner. With luck (haha, here I go again...), I'll get around to finishing it after UV:L's done, which is planned to be May, but you know how deadlines can be.

19th December 2003

Gallery Update. Presenting Dawnfire the Phoenix, from Ultima Legacy. 

On other news, went to the premier of Return of the King yesterday. Suffice to say I will be seeing it again on the 26th. And buying the soundtrack. Possibly one of those swords as well. Yesss, precious...

6th December 2003

Gallery Update. Presenting Sir Mythrantar of the Order of the Silver Serpent. A knightly friend from Ultima Legacy. :)

Partying tonight. Even considered wearing a dress (which still fits! I tried it on last night). Pretty red thing. Hadn't worn it for... hm... 4 or 5 years? Anyway, I'll probably end up wearing pants and a shirt. I don't have any shoes to go with the dress. ;)

I should also consider archiving this page into months. Not today though.

30th November 2003

Alright. The Black Ankh has been updated.

*snickers* You're going to kill me... :)

Only one chapter and the epilogue to go. I'm doing my best to get this done before the New Year. It'd make a spiffy Christmas present sorta deal. It's all written, by the way. I just have to finish typing the damn thing.

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28th November 2003

Uploaded the colour version of the latest Elora pic to the Gallery. Not much else to say yet, since it's only the 28th by 38 minutes. Hm...

Well, g'night! :)

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27th November 2003

Uploaded two new pictures to the Gallery, one by me, which took three or so hours, and the other by Ralph Damiani, which took all of half an hour, damn him. Still, I must say that Elora looks like a fox. :)

Oh, and there's an interview thingy with me on UltimaDot. Thanks to Dino the Dark Dragon and Hacki Dragon for 'passing on the quill'. :)

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25th November 2003

Behold the Gallery, in all its GLORY!! Yes, it's up and running again. Some new stuff has been uploaded, so take a peek. I even found some pics from a few years ago that are fairly decent. Since I have a scanner, I should get around to putting them online too.

Anyway, now that's done, I go back to contemplating how I want this site to look. I mean... it's a bit... black. Nothing wrong with black, but there's too much of it.

And not nearly enough dragons.

Ah, that's more like it...

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24th November 2003

*gasp* More sections are working! Now you can revel in the mysteries of About Me, or run for your life via the Links! If neither option interests you, you could look at some Poetry. I even added a few new ones. Or, at least, ones that weren't there before.

The Gallery is still a work in progress. You can visit it, but at the moment it's even more boring than the About Me section. :)

Returning to my old dragon-on-cliffside-bordering-left-side-of-page is looking more appealing by the day. For one, there's not much work required in putting something in that I've already done the art for. And having links on the left and right side of the main body annoys me. It should all be on the left! Of course, I can always put all the links on the left without using aforementioned dragon-on-cliffside art, but I liked it. Why do people always say 'try a new look'?

*grumbles*

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23rd November 2003

Here it is. The historic 'first news item' of my site. Usually you'll have something really interesting on an important article like this, and... well, you'll probably be disappointed. :) I'm still in the process of deciding what I want this place to look like. As you can see, I have buttons and overall 'Shadow of Light'ish appeal, but I still have to figure out background images for my spiffy sidebars and if I want images in the top left and right corners. I sort of miss the dragons I had on my last site, so maybe I'll do something similar.

Anyway, Ye Olde News section will inform you of updates to this site, if any. Since I'm still hard at work getting things back online (thankee muchly to Virgilanti for making this possible! :) ), there will probably be several updates in the near future to the affect of 'Link X now works! Behold the wonders within!'

Speaking of which, the Stories link is now fully operational. As Strongbad would say, 'Check out its majesty.' For any readers of The Black Ankh... sorry. No updates yet. Try again tomorrow. :)

I can probably use the News section to entertain you with humorous anecdotes from The Life That is SoL (SoL, for you newcomers, being short for Shadow of Light, aka me). So if anything vaguely interesting happens to me in the future, you might get to read about it.

For your information, and in closing, the last vaguely interesting thing that happened to me was something about angora bunnies.

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