6th August

Its been a hectic few days since the site overhaul. I've been back up to Lancaster and carted down another load of heavy stuff on the train, destroying my big Suitcase of Holding™ at the same time. I've worked sporadically on the MA which I've been having some trouble with. And, of course, I've been playing games far too much.

The MA.

I've finished the second draft of my portfolio stuff, and I'm currently sorting out the third and probably final draft before submission on the 3rd September. Its amazing how many things that you thought sounded great before now sound completely naff and artificial. Especially some of the dialogue. So during the last week I've been working on two things - the dialogue and the timeline (which I realised was completely out of whack).

Come the end of this week, I need to have finished redraft 3 so I can focus on the other element of the MA - the critical/reflective bit. Its a 3000 word study of what I've done, how and why I've done it, and what has inspired me. I've been putting it off for a while, trying to focus on the writing, but now its looming over my head like some kind of Sword of Damoclese.

Games

Not been doing a massive amount games-wise. I've finally started working my way through the later sections of F.E.A.R. which I've put off for ages without any real reason to do so. I've also installed Unreal Tournament 2004 and, of course, have been playing World of Warcraft far too much.

Recently I acquired a copy of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS, and I have to say its very good fun. Big areas, lots of stuff to collect, quests to complete, irritating bosses to kill. Just my kind of thing. Oh, and the soundtrack is great too. Haven't completed the first run through the game yet, but I am assured that there are a load of unlockable things to do after I have. Huzzah!

Blogging

Apparently I need to get back into blogging. Last year I updated my FFXI blog and my main site blog quite regularly. This has not continued this year, and I'm told that I should at least sort out my Myspace page and maybe get one of those Facebook things. I shall do so, though I'm not entirely sure what I should even put on them. Maybe having them will be enough?

~Jon

Demajen.net V7!

Is 7 your lucky number?

It's been an awfully long time since we had a real proper update in terms of site design. The last time I fiddled with the page was a year or two ago when I decided that, because I was teaching, I didn't have enough time on my hands to update the site properly - thus I changed to the Blogger format. Thing about blogs is, though: they look daft if they aren't updated regularly. Which mine wasn't.

So it was about time to do a real update. All the familiar sections are here: pages for my artwork, links to my favourite sites, links to the sites I host (fewer these days, but still there!) and a link to my rarely-updated blog.

Also on display is a new background image which I've been slaving away at for a while. A higher resolution version will be found in the gallery soon. (It isn't there yet because the higher res version actually has lots more detail in - wanted to keep it pretty simple for the site background.)

In The Works

In the works I have a couple of new pieces for the gallery that I meant to put up ages ago. There's also my novel, hopefully coming soon - it is being redrafted at the moment and hopefully will be looking at publishing sometime mid-late next year (*fingers crossed*).

You are up to date.

~Jon

End of an Era

Well, kind of the End anyway... This week it is week 10 at Lancaster University, which means that the University academic year is shutting down for the most part. All the undergrads will be trundling off home at the end of this week, leaving Lancaster a generally quieter place. I, however, do not really finish this week. My MA in Creative Writing runs till October - portfolio submission deadline is first Monday in September. This leaves me with an annoying quandry in terms of "what to do next".

I hate that. What to do next. It always leaves me with that slightly sick feeling in my gut. This time last year I had already quit teaching, and while I didn't know just yet that I was to get a place on the MA course, I at least knew I had applied for it, and in a way, I didn't much care about sorting myself out in any other way due to my illness.

Now, though, I am all better. And I haven't applied for anything, mainly because I DO have an MA to finish which takes up a lot of time. I'm just starting a 2-week website overhaul for one of the departments at the Uni, so I'm hoping to get a foot in some metaphorical door that way, but what I'd really like to do is work with students - but not high school students.

I'd also really like to do a PhD. I have some interesting fields of research that I'd like to delve into. Trouble is, PhDs are expensive, so I'd need some kind of work to fund me through it. Plus I'd need somewhere to live.

I find myself in the same position as I found myself after I finished my PGCE: No Job. No House. 2 things that annoyingly rely on each other. I am throwing considerable effort into my MA portfolio over the next 10 weeks or so, but part of me needs to be siphoned into looking for work, accomodation, and numerous other things. Its a busy time. I just hope my friends are right when they say: "When one door closes, another one opens." Its probably true. I just need to find the door!

~Jon

Where Does The Time Go?

Greetings one and all. Its been a long time. An awfully long time. Where is all the new artwork? The new stuff?

Well, there hasn't been any new artwork for quite some time. You see, I've been busy writing my first novel and working towards my MA in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. The course is 2/3 of the way through now, and I have a first draft novel finished, weighing in at around 95,000+ words. Working on the second draft now.

Its a fantasy thriller, with a bit of sci-fi, a bit of the gothic, and a bit of 'other stuff' there too. They say that there are only 7 stories in the world, but I don't think you'll have read one quite like this!

Anyway, that will (hopefully) be coming soon! (gimme six months or so).

Other Stuff
So what else have I done in the last five months or so?

Well:

1) Watched a lot of films, read a lot of books, played a lot of games.
2) Wrote a lot.
3) Turned 26 >.>
4) Carried on playing FFXI and WoW.
5) Started (but not finished) 1x piece of artwork.
6) Came up with ideas for at least 3 more novels. ~_~;;
7) Been to a wedding.
8) Decided I probably won't go back into teaching.
9) Slept a lot.

Not necessarily in that order.

Pirates of the Caribean 3

Thought I would end this post with a review of Pirates 3, since I went to watch it last night and its still fresh in my mind.

I've read a LOT of negative criticism about the film. Apparently its "too long" and "too confusing" and some bits just aren't explored enough. In a way I agree: the film IS long, and it IS complicated, and there ARE bits - Calypso for example - that aren't really explored as much as they could have been. But you'll note that I don't say "too" long, or "confusing", as I didn't find it either of those things. Perhaps as a writer I find it easy to get my head around complicated plots? I don't know. Either way, I thought the film was excellent, easily as good as the first one (the second film wasn't quite so good).

Oh, and the soundtrack was excellent too. I'm a big fan of soundtracks to which I can write, and this one has all the elements that I like.

STORY: 9.5/10 (some people may find it too complicated >.>)
MUSIC: 10/10 (lots of rousing, swashbuckling bit, and some nice haunting bits)
ACTING: 10/10 (some great turns from the bit characters)
FX: 10/10 (apart from one slightly dodgy bit with Sparrow vs Jones on the mast)
CLOSURE: 9/10 (We knew this was the last of a trilogy, and it does an excellent job of pulling all the threads together into a believable whole. I recommend staying till after the credits for a 10/10 closure).

A Note
Now I've finally got round to sorting out this new Google account blogger thing, I may well update more frequently with random stuff. Probably.