If you are seeing this journal entry, well ... hey! Congratulations, you lucky duck! You've kept an otherwise discontinued DeviantArt account on your friend and/or watch list that you should have removed back in July!

...

Alright. Alright. Cutting out the shenanigans now.

So ... hey. Hi. Hello. Howdy. Bonjour. Hola. Ohayo. Buon giorno. Hoi.

I'm sure anyone out there seeing this may be asking themselves, "What in the world is he doing back? Didn't he say he was done with dA for good? Man, what a flip-flopper!"

Yeah, well. Your face is done with dA. : |

... okay, but seriously. I won't lie. I'll swallow my pride, and accept that back then I did indeed say as much in the podcast I left in my last journal entry. The truth is that during my time away from DeviantArt, back around September, I completed the last story I ever really had any intentions of writing for public consumption, which some of you may remember as the story "Gustav the Graveyard".

Now to be honest, I would've been cool with just locking the story away in a safe. I never was the most popular page view, after all (writers + dA = lolwtfbbq), so it isn't like too many people would notice whether the story was actually finished or not, right? Besides, considering how I made a kerfluffle about not being on dA anymore back in July, I can already hear the cracking of knuckles, wary eyes, and even some rough, tough, Deep South-like voice from someone going, "You got a lotta nerve comin' back around here, boy."

... sort of makes me wonder if I should've hired a bodyguard.

Well, you can save the lynching. This is just a temporary return to finish a little something. I figured, with my good friend *shadeykris posting her picture that was made in collaboration for Parts 2, 3, and the Epilogue of Gustav the Graveyard in the future to sort of near future, it was only fair I come back and put the rest of the story up for anyone who is interested to see. She urged me to come back and rescind my little exile from dA, considering every so often I still get that itch to write, too.

But, still, I don't know if that's such a good idea. Sometimes I get the itch, but it is never so strong that I want to do anything with it. And I got so much going on anyway, you know? Still, I would like to just post the rest of this story. Makes sense, compared to just leaving anyone who read it hanging and wondering what ever happened to the rest, or if it was ever even finished.

So ... hey, yeah, I guess that's it. I know, you fine readers were probably expecting something big, huh? Some epic journal entry about what's been going on with me, or something? ... naw, I'm not that important. Not by a longshot. I'll just say that things are puttering along in the life that I am living. The usual ups, downs, twists, turns, and such. Aiming to graduate from college in December, and see where life goes from there. Possibly finishing out the hockey season at my current job before doing something more. Debating a period of enlistment with the Air Force after that, or throwing myself in to the good ol' American work force in the sport sector, depending how the economy is going. Maybe even traveling a little once I am done, though I think I've done enough of that this year to last me until I'm 30. ::Laughs.:: Oiy. We'll see where things go.

Not exactly the most solid details or big plans for the future, huh? I never was really good at thinking things ahead, was I? ::Sheepish look.:: But, hey, I manage.

Anyway. That's all I got. I'm going to be posting the second part, third part, and then the epilogue all at about the same time sometime tomorrow, so forgive the sudden deluge of writing deviations those of you who still watch me will be getting. Thanks for understanding, and I hope all you fine people out there in dA-land are having a most bodacious time in your lives.

Anyway, time for me to go to work. Blue Jackets play the Phoenix Coyotes tonight. Keep on rocking, old chums.