Zub Tales

You may be wondering where the heck I’ve been for a month. No updates, no e-mail no nothing. Of course, maybe you just sighed with relief that your Inbox wasn’t being pelted by Jimbo-propaganda. Well, in either case, here’s the much-delayed newsletter.

Gala was here early to write SATs. November’s been a very, very busy month and it’s been hectic but adventurous as always. Gala and I took another weekend trip to her mother’s early in the month and while she wrote her SAT’s I wandered the University campus taking photos and sketching. It was strangely relaxing.

Afterwards, we went to the West Edmonton Mall and wandered the vastness of it. If you haven’t been there, the sheer size and scope of this place is insane. It’s part theme park, part shopping whiz bang and all very strange. Worth seeing, that’s for sure. While I was there I picked up the new Terry Pratchett book called ‘The Last Hero’, but haven’t even had time to start it.

A Chinook blew into Calgary two weeks ago with sun and warmth. This week is snowy, blowy and –15. Ugh.

Work is busy as all hell and the larger class is fun, but exhausting at the same time. They had their instructor review last week and I had probably the highest marks I’ve ever scored in a review, but that’s happened because the frenzied energetic pace with which I’ve run this class. It’s a blast, but I can feel my body fighting back and will have to slow down a bit. Too much time drawing and at the computer has left my arm and eyes a bit sore.

As I had foreshadowed in my last Newsletter, I won’t be in Ontario for Christmas/New Years. It’s just not in the cards this time, I’m afraid. Too much to do here, not enough time or funds to make the trip back home. It’ll be the first Christmas away from home, and I know it’ll be strange. I still have massive amounts of Christmas shopping to do and now I’ll have to pack the gifts up and mail them to boot. Should be entertaining.

After overhauling Gala’s computer, I think I’m now official tech-savvy. I couldn’t do tech support for a living or anything, but most standard install, rearrange fix-ups are within my scope now. Compared to last year when I couldn’t even hook up a hard drive, it’s a nice leap in skills.

Saw Monsters Inc. and was pretty impressed with it. Pixar comes through as always. I saw a studio tour on the internet and had daydreams of working their in the story department again. It would definitely be an ideal…wacky, creative storytelling…my gig completely.

Picked up a pre-order ticket for Lord of the Rings today. I’m giddy about the possibility of having a decent fantasy film actually exist. When you consider that ‘classics’ of the fantasy genre have included stuff like Willow and The Beastmaster, it shouldn’t be hard for Lord of the Rings to leave this stuff in the dust. Considering how badly people want to escape reality (check the Harry Potter box office numbers), I’m hoping Lord of the Rings can light up a bit of a fantasy renaissance. Of course, that could mean lots of copycats, but hopefully also some fresh material too.

I bought Civilization 3 and have barely done anything beyond play the tutorial. Like the Pratchett book, I’ve just been too busy to spend time on it. Oh well, it’ll keep.

The website’s going well. I’m not as far ahead on pages as I was when the site started, but I still have enough of a buffer to keep the site updated on time. I’ll be breaking during the holidays to get more advance pages done and get a breather. It’s been a blast so far and the site ripped past the 100,000 page view barrier a few weeks ago. If you get a chance, stop by and get caught up on the story and let me know what you think.

While you’re there, click the Vote button on the main page. Heck, stop by the Forum and say ‘Hi’. I’m actually surprised more of my friends haven’t jumped on the message boards to antagonize me. Cornflake’s been there jabbing away and the banter’s been quite amusing.

Okay, that’s the blurb for now. I’ll do my best to send another one next week and be more regular about this stuff.