Most of my mental energy these last two months has been spent on a project I have named “The Demon of South Gloria”. It’s a set of puzzles or a game or something. It’s available for free over on Itchy. Over there, I describe it thus:
The Demon Of South Gloria is a puzzle booklet that puts you in the role of a paranormal investigator who has come to a small town region that appears to be in the grip of demonic forces. To figure out how to defeat this evil, you have to solve 13 pages of puzzles.

Comes in the form of a pdf with 13 pages intended to be printed. Very likely could take more than one sitting to completely solve.

All of that is correct. I really enjoyed making these, and I’ve got ideas for no less than three sequel-type sets of puzzles. The thing is, though, I simply can’t justify working on those right now. I am certain there’s an audience for this sort of thing, but I can’t find it. I went so far as to go to Reddit and make self-promotion posts. That is unlike me. I genuinely don’t enjoy going to parts of the Internet that aren’t my home, let alone drawing attention to myself while I’m there. But still, I believe in these puzzles, so I went to forums (or whatever they are called on Reddit) for people who love puzzles, or love wordsearches specifically, and so on. I tried to draw attention to my work. It hasn’t worked. I get barely any views on these things.

But I don’t feel bad talking about it here on this site. This site also gets barely any views, and those who do come here already know about these puzzles. So I don’t have to feel bad about posting it here. This is for posterity!

Now to just keep reminding myself that no views is actually better than lots of views and no downloads.

Now, in case I haven’t made it clear enough yet, I enjoy being back in school. On the whole, I’d say it is a good thing. With that in mind, it’s time for me to complain about some more things I hate about school (or more accurately, probably, to complain about the same things I already have complained about, in different words).

I’ve got four essays due between now and the end of the term. I don’t mind that, really. I hate doing essays, but I can manage. Except one: For my History class I have to do what they’re calling a Research Essay, which means that I am expected to go out and do learning on my own, then write about it. Okay, fair enough, except that I am paying THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS because I was tired of doing my learning on my own and thought maybe going to school would be a nice change of pace. More than any other assignment I have to do this year, I resent this Research Essay for being a kick in my nuts.

The other thing I’ve got to complain about is the sheer number of tutorial groups they do these days. I am assured this was not always the case, but every English class I’ve got splits the class into smaller groups once a week so they can talk about whatever (this includes my Mythology class, which is technically a Classics course, but I lump it in among book learnin’ classes). These tutorial groups are headed by the Teaching Assistants who struggle to try to make the teen-agers talk by reminding us that our participation mark (usually about ten percent of the final grade, I think) depends on talking. Well, I don’t want to talk, consarnit. I am generally interested in the discussions, and occasionally I don’t even hate the kids in the class, but I still don’t want to participate in the discussions. As I have tried to convey before, I could be in a discussion with my six closest friends on Earth and I’d still get more out of listening that joining in. I suppose that it’s a good thing I don’t care about chasing for perfect grades.

Another thing I’m going to have to put up with as I return to school is that there’s gonna be all those people there. I hate that.

In the time since I last attended school I’ve done a pretty good job of whittling down the number of people I have to be subjected to on a daily basis. I mean sure, I have to put up speaking to people I don’t want to speak to at work, or even just random people on the street who think I might want to communicate with them (like this one probably-drunk guy just last Sunday night who decided I wanted to hear the story about how he got asked to leave a Tim Hortons for smoking), but on the whole I’d say I’ve had to put up with less of that than I will in the coming year.

As I return to school, I’ll be surrounded by people who, probably, will be used to talking with people who don’t have “Why don’t you stop talking” repeating in their heads throughout the whole conversation. b.Some of these people will probably want to speak to me. Heck, I’ll probably actively have to start conversations with people for whatever stupid reasons school will give me for doing that. And, from what I can tell with my encounters with them, the younger generation doesn’t seem like the type cherish succinctness and brevity the way I do.

And it will be the younger generation I am dealing with. I am going to be, like, over a decade older than many of the other students taking first year classes. While this is okay in as much as it means I have a perfectly valid excuse for not relating to them and all their references to young people things (the first time I did university, I had no convenient excuse for my not relating), it also serves to complicate the relations I will have out of necessity. I am already incapable of having a forced conversation without constant awareness that I don’t want to, and the added awareness of the age difference isn’t going to help that.

Anyway, to look for the upside, some of these people will probably not be terrible and boring. I may even encounter people that I can enjoy speaking to (it has happened a handful of times in the past). What’s more, hopefully the fact that a lot of my co-students will be young persons who, for all I know, will be more interested in drinking and reality television will make me look smarter by comparison when it comes to schoolin’. Could happen.

Okay, so, over on the Secret Government Robots I am starting a four page story today. Here’s the thing, though. This story was actually made a long time ago, like, before I started doing the 22-page stories that have become the norm. I’ve had a couple pages that were similarly done at work with MS Paint on boring nights, but this story was made before any of them. I was saving it in case I ever needed to whip out a few pages because of missed deadlines or whatever, but that time hasn’t come yet. Instead I am using it up because it works in the current spot of the story, and I just got sick of having it around. So, anyway, this is my justification for how simple it is, at any rate.

Haiku!

I won a camel.
You also won a camel.
We all win camels.

Anyway, they’re doing a preventative spray for bedbugs in my building today, which is okay, I guess, I mean, I haven’t had bedbugs yet and I think I’d prefer to stay that way. But it also means I have to be awake at the wrong time of day, and spend four hours out of the apartment where there is sunlight and people, some of my least favorite things. And to make matters worse, I thought it was yesterday that this was happening. I spent four hours outside in the daytime yesterday and now I have to do it again today? There is no justice in the world.

So I have just now posted an add on Kijiji advertising that I could use a roommate. I’ve never had a roommate that was someone I didn’t know, but my monetary situation isn’t going to heal itself without some kind of help. I figure I’ll help out someone who is trying to get one of those educations that there are. At least that way I’ll feel like I’m helping someone, right?

Also worth noting: Kijiji did not allow me to describe myself as an “anti-social prick”. What manner of police-state censorship society are we living in over here? I had to call myself an “anti-social jerk” instead, which isn’t nearly as accurate.