As I mentioned, I moved to East Campus. I really like it here so far. I'm actually making an effort to socialize with people. My room is right next to the lounge where a lot of the freshmen hang out, usually psetting. People here leave their doors open. There are two cats, owned by individuals but just wander around, they're surprisingly unintrusive. And people make food, or bring food, for the hall.

I know there was something much I was going to say about, but I can't remember at all what.

Anyway, classes. Here's what I'm taking this term:
6.02 - Introduction to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science II - The theme seems to be signal processing, we learn about Fourier transforms and modulation and stuff. The material is actually really interesting, I like it more than I'd expected.
6.034 - Artificial Intelligence - In lecture we hear about very broad concepts, and in tutorial and recitation we do the boring mechanics of it, like search trees and rule-based systems. It's pretty interesting but really easy. The teacher is Patrick Winston, who's from back when AI was just starting and people didn't have any precedents for how to do things, so there's kind of a disconnect between the sort of anything-might-work thinking and the algorithmic problems.
9.07 - Statistics for Brain and Cognitive Science - Basic statistics. Lecture is boring.
9.56 - Abnormal Language - So far we've done review of syntax and acquisition, and talked about second-language learning and brain localization. There's a lot of reading, most of which I just skim. Really cool stuff though. We have to write a paper later in the semester, I should think of something interesting to do it on.
STS.010 - Neuroscience and Society - We read and discuss news articles and scientific papers about neuroscience-related issues, and talk about how popular culture and research influence each other.

I feel like I'm wasting a lot of time, time that I spend just sitting there not doing anything. It seems like other people do this too though, so maybe they're just more efficient with the rest of their time. I'm trying to figure out how to use Emacs, it's very not easy relative to other things.

Well, I still don't remember what I was going to say.

Today my appreciation is for ... people taking time to teach other people things just for fun.

If you're going to Fest, it looks like Avi the Friendly Merch Guy will be joining my good friend Bryan Ohio for the weekend Bryan booked, or helped book, or however the hell that works. I don't know. What I know is they will be there and they will have copies of my new book at their merch table, you are more than welcome to stop by and pick some up. I think they're gonna have some other NN2S merch there as well, couple shirts, probably some buttons and stickers and the like. Plus, probably more importantly, they're gonna be hosting some really cool bands.

I don't know which venue or anything yet, so stay tuned, I'll keep you posted. In the mean time, there's still several other, faster ways to buy my book right now!

So Virgil from Vinyl Collective contacted me a while ago and told me about a series of records he's putting out. The series is called "Under the Influence", and will comprise of over a dozen split 7"s, each featuring a different band doing a cover of a band or song they consider influential to their sound. My beautiful fiancee Amanda and I, in turn, are making the covers for each of these, designed as parodies of the original album art. I can never think of how to explain that so it makes sense.

So I draw them, Amanda watercolors them, Virgil puts them out, and everyone dances naked in a circle like in the Wicker Man (the original, not that weird Nic Cage abomination from a couple years ago), and good times are had.

The bands involved and the songs they're covering are all being kept top secret, for the most part, so I can't tell you about any of them until Vinyl Collective announces them officially. So I can only show you two of the several we have so far, but here you go!

Kick it:

Good times, great oldies. There are some really, REALLY solid records coming up in this series (one in particular I absolutely cannot wait to hear, you'll know it when it comes), plus some art that I am quite proud of. Plus, it's super fun getting to collaborate with Amanda on something finally. My two favorite things in the whole world, drawing and Amanda, all rolled into one! It's a winter wonderland. Stay tuned!

NOTHING NICE TO SAY

At some point it dawned on me that doing what is the equivalent of four regular sized NN2S strips all at once with this new format, PLUS the fact that the storyline demands art more dynamic than two characters standing against a plain white backdrop, this is the most work I've ever had to put into any sort of comic ever, and adding several extra hours of work to color everything is just nonsense. So, I apologize any of you are disappointed, but honestly, I'm finishing this up right now and it's 4AM, if I'd have colored this I wouldn't be done until probably seven or eight. So yeah, no thanks.

The arc is moving along. I might do more than one update this week since I'm not bothering with color anymore, and since the next two pages are more story than comedy, so it might be best to crank those out quickly lest anyone get bored. Or offended. Or itchy.

BOOK NEWS!

In case you missed it over the weekend, MY BOOK IS OUT NOW!

I've been hearing from a lot of people that stores aren't ordering enough copies. By which I mean the few stores that bothered to order any only ordered one, and so it'll be bought by the time you might show up to buy it (unless you live in Australia and your bookstore ordered a hundred thousand and they still all sold out -- seriously, when the fuck did I get crazy famous in Australia? How did that happen?).

SO. What you need to do, if you want to get your hands on this book before everyone else does, call your local bookstore of choice on the phone and ask if they have a copy, and, if they don't, ask them to order you one. Every bookstore does this, and they'll call you when it comes in. You'd be wise to take this route before they all sell and there's none left for everyone (or, more likely, before none of them sell because bookstores aren't ordering them without provocation, and so no one buys them since they're not stocked anywhere, and then Dark Horse feels they've wasted their time and money on a failure of a book and I'm cast aside like yesterday's leftovers and OH GOD I CAN'T TAKE THE PRESSURE.

*ahem*

So yeah, please do that, please pick up a copy of the book.

ALSO, for those of you who preordered the book from my store, some stupid shipping problem happened and we got our books later than other stores. BUT. They are being sent out, and they all have the buttons, no worries. Thanks for being patient.