As you’re probably aware, the Amber comic has now reached a year without an update. For those who don’t know already, Amber herself has been gone from the community for a while now. Despite that, I still have plans to finish the comic, (if nothing else then at least for the fan base.)

So what’s been keeping me from producing new pages?

School and Work.

This is probably the biggest reason. I’ve been working an average of 30 hours a week at my job, give or take 5 hours. I’ve also been taking 3 to 4 classes per quarter. According to my adviser, that amounts to a 70 hour per week time commitment. I don’t know about that, but I do know that I nearly killed my self with a full load last spring. It all paid off though. After a decade of starting college strong, screwing around, and then getting serious about my education, I’m finally just a couple dozen units from graduation. I’ll be taking those classes spread out over the next year, so I should be less busy during that time.

Origami

Over the last year I been mastering a new form of art, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, both traditional and modern styles.

Here are some examples:
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Look a centipede:
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Travian
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This online game is a terrible time sink. (Because of that I don’t recommend it.) Also it's addictive. It’s sort of a MMORTS. Thousands of human players start with a single village. You build your village, train armies, manage resources, found new villages or conquer the villages of other players. Combat basically consists of a countdown timer indicating travel time followed by calculations and a result report is generated. It can literally take hours or even days to build or travel.

In theory this should allow you to check in a couple times a day, build a few things and live your life. The intro page even makes it sound like it’s possible to play it as a sort of medieval SimCity crossed with a social network. In reality, it’s mainly an excuse for shut-ins who are on 24/7 to crush smaller players. Most player join alliances for protection, as well as working towards endgame which happens after a year on each server.

Guitar

Yeah that’s right, I took up the guitar. I found a guitar where I work that was broken. Using wood glue I managed to fix it, and, following an instruction manual I found, I started learning to play it. The guitar instructor who teaches at the center I work at was impressed that I learned so much on my own. He hooked me up with a good deal on an acoustic guitar. Hey, if I become proficient with this one I might pick up an electric one too.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Just the latest of the various animated series/comics that I’ve gotten into or rediscovered. I picked up the box set for all three seasons.

Plants vs. Zombies
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This is a kick ass take on the tower defense game. You have a lawn, various plants that attack, defend or support, and a horde of zombies coming for your brains. I unlocked all the achievements already, but it’s still fun to play.