After my extended hiatus which I began taking several months ago, I've decided to assimilate myself back into artistic communities and return to writing fiction, reviews, and music, as well as become a more active member of these communities.

I’ve been lying too stagnant for the past several months, and I decided that I need a change from my constant day-to-day life of gaming and college. Although, part of the reason I’ve been pretty quiet is because of my moving into the “college style” of life. Now that I have a strong feel for it, it’s high time I start re-allocating my hours. I would actually get involved in the college experience...but thus far, this “experience” is best described as such: being a twat to your room-mate, stealing his stuff, having sex with girls on the couch, getting drunk, throwing up on the floor, getting into relationships, breaking relationships, having spouts of complete rudeness followed by the sudden urge to be nice only to have it thrown apart later. …yeah, whoever said to “enjoy the college experience” must be off their walker…oh wait, the people that told me that were my parents. …WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU TWO ON IN COLLEGE AND WHERE CAN I GET SOME?! I kid, but seriously, where did you get this strange notion?

For those of you that actually remember me, yes, there will be more music, but there will also be "walls of text" of various stories I wanted to write, including a cross-over between S.A. Macintosh's and my story universes, a short story based in the City of Heroes universe, and a tale based in the Warcraft universe. That isn't to say that I've neglected my own epic Æterna, but I feel it's necessary to actually write a little more before I take on something so ambitious.

I’m also going to start writing video game reviews; the first one is of Bethesda’s latest epic: Fallout 3. This is also something I’ve been thinking on doing, because I’ve always been opinionated about certain games, various trends in gaming, and so forth. That and it’s another chance to practice writing in a completely different style from fiction.

As for music, I have a few projects I have let sit on the burner for a while. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on the stove. So, after several failed attempts followed by one successful involving a match and singed eyebrows, these musical projects are ready to come into fruition. The first one is “Skies of Y’drask”; it is a piece designed to be the main theme of M.A. Guerra’s Nidhogg. The second is an SATB Choir piece with piano accompaniment I’ve dubbed “My Psalm”, based on the poem of the same name by John Whittier. Lastly, but certainly not least, is “No Final Frontiers”. This is something special I wanted to do for a long time, as this is based on the idea of a main theme for S.A. Macintosh’s Interrealm.

The last several times I’ve planned things like this and put them on the stove, I’ve always singed my hand, kicked the stove, and left it alone, returning again several months later thinking I can do it again and having an encore presentation of hand burning. But then I realized: if I keep doing this, I’ll never be cut out for this type of work as an artist, and that would defeat the purpose of me ever writing or making anything at all. So, I’ve decided I’m going to bite my tongue when the water boils over onto my hand and endure and stick with what I say to do until my hand falls off.

But you’re probably wondering: what the hell were you doing these past few months? Well…I caved in my craving to play Warcraft. I got far with my orc rogue: level 70 and partially into Black Temple (the second highest dungeon within the first expansion). Am I going to continue playing with the new expansion? After thinking hard on this…I’ve decided: No, I am not. I have had my fill. I met some nice people, but the fact of the matter is this: they’re just there to play the game and not actually make friendships. This is something I can’t comprehend. That’s not to say I regret playing so much, in fact, I do not. It gave me an insight into human nature I can’t get here in the real world. I learned a lot about how certain people act and react to situations within a simulated environment, ranging from break-ups to arguments about “olitical correctness”. Not to mention, for the first time in a long time, I actually had fun playing the game until recent events turned me away (both within the game and in real life).

College was somewhat difficult for me to adapt to, and the game actually helped me feel better when everything else went Murphy’s Law on me. But now I’ve got a foot-hold in college. I have teachers that actually care about my success, including one who says I have potential for being “top notch” as a singer. That’s something I’ve never heard before. With that in mind, why should I continue to squander what little time I have in college on a game? Granted, I’m shifting it to a more social approach, but also a more productive and creative one as well and is more likely to better me than any game like that can.

Outside of the game, I continued working with my vocal teacher, learned about 16th century counterpoint (and how I’ve grown to hate it), met all kinds of different people with some kind and some not, and for the first time, I actually feel at home. It isn’t perfect; my room-mates can act as evidence to this, but it certainly isn’t high school either.

So, with this long string of plans ahead of me, I head off to do what I must. In the meantime, I plan to update my journal every Monday to give a status report or even a comment on a particularly interesting piece of news. And with that I must retire; bed calls me and I am entranced.

Let’s be careful out there.

-K. Solii

Addendum: A formal apology to those who actually read through this 1000 word summary of my thoughts. I’ll try not to make it as long next time so that your head does not asplode.

ERAGON BLOWS UP THE DEATH STAR!!!



That is all.

k bai.

(Also, just FYI, I'm not dead. College is just time consuming.

...to my new college dorm. Oh wow, it has been a while. I must have forgotten to update my journal...yyup, I did, Derr...

So, what has happened in the past month? Well, I found out that the lightning strike did NOT take out my motherboard...just the Power Supply...an easy fix (thank goodness, lol). And pretty much...nothing happened aside from me going on a cruise and enjoying my last few days of summer before I moved in to college.

But that kind of stuff is pretty boring, so I've put up a summary:

The past month and a half were awesome, and I've never felt better.

There, now that that is done, let's talk about what's going on with me art wise.

I start classes in music next week, so I have a bit of time to fool around aside from meeting new people and finalizing things for classes. So, on that note, the story for City of Heroes I promised will be started on writing as well as more music (non related) to follow. Some music which should have been done months ago, but I digress.

In the midst of all this, more work on Æterna is being and will be done. An ETA is still too hard to tell, but there will be both music and text for this epic.

Also: I apologize for not commenting recently and being...fairly inactive in the art community. I guess I try to get into it and before I know it, I'm ADD on a new game or a butterfly out my window.

So with that, I hope to return to the swing of things in the next few days, and perhaps, you know, actually provide input maybe? Perhaps?

So with that, I'm going to fix a few more things before I head to bed. Expect the first part of my CoH story soon.

...k bai.

But it didn't catch on fire, thankfully...

HOWEVER.

My comp is completely and utterly fucked. It went through BOTH surge protectors and it entered through the direct connection to my direct line to my router. Of all the things to fuck it up, it's the one thing that's fucked with me for the past two years (Long story short, my modems and routers and I have NEVER gotten along pefectly).

What does this mean to the people who actually care? Well, You won't see me on for the next week or two, depending on when I get my new parts. That's right, I have to rebuild the goddamn thing because it was the motherboard that's failed. I have one last option to try before I actually order a new mobo/processor, so let's hope that it works.

Thankfully, however, the new monitor I got is perfectly fine.

...but not just my compy died in the explosion of lightning. An air conditioner got fucked (every one of its circuits literally fried), two television sets, two phones, our drier (it doesn't turn off properly lol), my friend's external hard-drive (I'm SO FUCKING SORRY ROBERT!) and to top it all off, my PS2 dualshock controller (The system lived, but the controller didn't lololol).

The one thing that was spared was my Xbox 360...of all the things in the house, the probably frailest piece of equipment survived the lightning.

(FYI, my mood says "Glad"...please replace this with "utterly 'shocked'", because DA is being stupid).

Anyways, off to try my last resort...wish me luck.

Edit: No Marco, it's not your fault, now shut up lol.