Okay, things have settled down at least a little, sooo I guess it's a good time to post an update? Especially since I'm not exactly posting a lot. Not that I'd want to bore you with a huge journal, anyway So, what has happened in the past year or so?

Most of the year has been .. just the usual stuff, so I didn't really see too much of a reason to update - nothing much new and just minor things, so I just .. didn't think it was journal worthy? Some time last year I started planning to study a semester abroad in Australia, so I applied to a couple of Universities. There are many reasons for that, but among them is probably that my English .. kinda sucks - plus I can't just have a good chunk of my friends study in Australia and not know for myself what they have to endure all the time, right? It was interesting, too - personally I'd say studying in Australia (judging from the demand and the level of effort/knowledge required) is harder than the United States, but easier than Austria, albeit more labour-intensive: They're keeping you on a much tighter leash, requiring more hand-ins and having assessment items than Austria's "one-exam-at-the-end-determines-your-grade". I'm still waiting for the official transcript, but seeing from the internal records they've released so far, I should have done decently well

Then, some time in October last year I got to know a certain someone who has shaped my life since. *KiTSUNEMAGiC1 made me realize many things - like that it is possible to run to classes in a mere eight minutes instead of the usual seventeen, for example ^-^ She's totally sweet too, thoughtful, sensible and thinks about absolutely everything - plus she draws the most adorable pictures I wouldn't even know where to start if I were to name all the little things I love about her

During the year work just added up - with all this, I didn't have much time left for anything else - a day only has so many hours in which you can do things. So, most didn't really hear all that much of me; I feel bad for that, but it's nothing I could really change without severely neglecting other things - I just ran out of time to do what I could still do a few years ago. A few people didn't take that well, some even getting abusive because of the sudden lack of attention, but others simply excelled: there are little persons such as Lenore (~rabid-cabbit), Sylvana (~ChocolateCoveredLupe), Raul (=Bungie95), Phiyrr (*Phiyrr), Matt (@sapphiretiger), Kat (~tehcutiepie) and many many others - who understood, gratefully replied to whatever I sent when I had the time, even when my replies sometimes took months to come. They might not be the most popular deviants, but they are the true stars of deviantArt. I think I do set my own standards quite high, for me (and sometimes not even I meet them) and for others, but I can safely say that all of my close friends not only meet, but also exceed any and all standards that I could possibly have - and that is a really beautiful feeling ^^

Some time in May, Adobe brought out Flash 9, so I decided to get it (good thing I can get educational versions ;3 ). Flash 9 features a new version of ActionScript (AS3), which I've been looking at for the past few months - it cleans up many flaws of the old AS2 (Phiyrr's game was made in AS2), and though it's by far not perfect, it's a big step closer to becoming a convenient programming language to use. I've practiced using AS3 a bit by making a small game with Libby (*KiTSUNEMAGiC1), so if you have a few minutes, feel free to check it out


_{(Flash 9 required - it's AS3 ^^ If you're running an older version of Flash, you should upgrade anyway, there are some severe security issues in older versions of Flash that were fixed in Flash 9. 2250 points wins the game - beat this without cheating? X3 )}

I don't know what the exact focus of the game is - it was mostly a for-fun project, but I also wanted to complete a project in AS3 to learn how to use that language - and on top of all, I thought it'd be a cute idea to have a little game featuring drawings of both of us in it. Suggestions and ideas are welcome as usual (yes, no sound in that game X3 Next one will have sounds, promised ^^), if people are interested in the source (which isn't all that great, but can still give an idea how things can be done), I'll probably publish it as well ^^


That's just about all I can think of for now; I hope I'll be able to update slightly more regularly now that we have summer holidays, soo .. we'll see ^^


Toby