University started today, only I didn’t start with it because my particular lectures start tomorrow. But being a conscientious sort, I went to see where the lecture theatres are anyway. This was not a simple prospect, because Auckland University has not contented itself with a single campus, but flung out little suburban bits in other places. Normal students can arrange their courses to be mostly on one campus, but people like me who want to do everything all at once and get stage two computer science done in a single semester have to accept a certain degree of bus travel.

It seems the plan for my Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays will be as follows:

1. get up (early)
2. take the train to Britomart
3. walk up Queen Street to work
4. provide valuable helpdesk support to callers from all over the country for three hours
5. walk to the city campus
6. hang out for an hour
7. catch a bus to the Tamaki campus
8. attend a lecture
9. catch a bus back to the City campus
10. hang out for three hours
11. attend a lecture
12. either walk to Britomart to catch a train home, or take a bus

There’s quite a lot of waiting around time there, especially if I decide to take the train home. I have several options for filling it.

I could do more helpdesking, as there’s always more deskhelping to be done. This would have the advantage of earning me more money, with the disadvantage that it might be too much helpingdesk given that I’ll be doing it all day on Wednesdays, and for another half-day on Monday.

I could study, leaving me more time in the evening for non-studying, non-helpdesking pursuits such as figuring out what the correct term for that actually is. I could also devote the hanging out time to artistic pursuits such as drawing comics and visiting the art gallery with my sketchbook. I think a combination of these latter two options is the most likely to eventuate.

I shall also have to see if I can learn to read on the bus without feeling queasy. Reading on the train has been fine, and I am even making some headway with my lifetime’s backlog of books I intend to read, which has its own bookshelf beside my bed and includes books I have not picked up in over a decade now, but still consider myself to be, in some vague existential sense, reading.

Behold the labour-saving innovation that is Tetris 1d.

Here’s another t-shirt. I drew a very careful picture of a quarry in Freehand to illustrate the concept of a quarry, with text to indicate that it’s another bloody one. It’s for Doctor Who fans again, and available through androzani.com.

As of Monday, I shall be a help desk support person at Slingshot. With my professional demeanour and intuitive problem-solving skills, I will help people with all their desk-supporting difficulties.

I start full-time for the first week, and I’ll revert to part-time once the university semester starts.

We had a pleasant and productive workshop in downtown Auckland on Saturday, with Angelo, Jessica, Lily, Ruth, Saul and me in attendance. Auckland people either didn’t show up or were defeated by the difficulty of having to call my cellphone in order to be let into the building. So I’m thinking we’ll look for a new venue next time, and my first thought is to ask the Alleluya Cafe, as we have at least one case giving precedent for people actually being able to meet there.

In any case, I got the next couple of pages of Glop planned out, with the added excitement of a plot I’m actually planning ahead a little now. So I’m happy. Ruth did some impressive work about Acid, Angelo has a gruesome tale of identity theft in the works, Jessica and Lily worked on some ghost-themed comics, and Saul has planned out part three of his auto-bio magnum opus. We also have a nice narrative jam comic coming along entitled Outsider Art School.

A while back I sent my CV to Slingshot on the off-chance they were looking for a part-time helpdesk support sort of person. It turns out they were, and they seemed pretty confident on the phone that they want me, and that they can offer the flexible hours I need to fit around my university work. So tomorrow I have a job interview, where I will get to show off how right I am to work for an ISP, and what a nice suit I have.

I shall spend the morning learning about their company, and thinking of interesting questions to ask when they get to the part of the interview where they ask whether I have any questions for them. I hope they ask me why manhole covers are circular, because I am totally ready to answer that one.

I have a timetable and textbooks and everything to be a student again. I haven’t actually been sent a bill yet, and no doubt there are still unimagined depths of university bureaucracy to plumb, but it seems at the moment like everything’s ready.

When I was packing to move to Auckland, I put some books in boxes to take, and some books in boxes to store away under the stairs. But when we got the van and filled it with boxes to take there was some room left over, so i ended up putting in many of the boxes to store away under the stairs as well. Thus I arrived in Auckland with many books I didn’t, truth be told, need. People looked at me funny when they helped carry them upstairs.

I could have thrown them away, but many of them had belonged to Nicki, and it seemed like they should go to some worthy people who would value and learn from them. Or at least to some people who take out of my hands the decision of which to sell and which to throw away.

And this was, eventually, what happened. This morning a man from Variety came round to take away my spare books for a book sale, where they will surely raise much money for charity. I have space in my wardrobe, and I don’t have to think about destroying books. It’s good to have civilisation, where people do things for you so that you don’t have to think about doing them.

There was much online soul-searching after the last Auckland Comics Meeting failed to eventuate, and eventually two major points were generally agreed to be applicable to all situations where humans gather in cafés. First, a time should be allotted so that each may know when the allotted time is. Second, the allotted time should be during a period in which it is known that the café will be open.

This month, both conditions were fulfilled simultaneously, and lo, people turned up at the allotted time. I think it helped that I wore my Spider-man hat to make ti easy to see which table to sit at, but then I always think it helps when I wear my Spider-man hat.

We had a fine time talking about comics, which is almost as good as drawing comics while you talk about them, but more of an Auckland Thing.

The Alleluya Café is, by the way, a very fine one with a magnificent big window looking out over Myers Park.