News: January 2000

         

Monday, Jan. 31, 2000
    The FAQ has been updated, and an Awards section has been added.
    And unfortunately, my home directory on my university account has vanished without a trace. Therefore, I can't access my e-mail. So if anyone has sent me mail recently, I apologize for not being able to respond promptly. :-/

Saturday, Jan. 29, 2000
    Wow, who'da thunk that one third of Avalon readers are disgruntled students? Go figure. :-) 18% of respondents are fairly happy students, 14% are slightly annoyed students, and 5% are students who can't get enough of school. 30% of respondents don't even attend school, and they're probably laughing at those disgruntled students. ;-)
    New poll today! Let's see what everyone thinks of the recent guest appearances...

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2000
    This week's chapter title comes from Terrence Marks. It was just too twisted for me not to use. :-) Now go read his comic, Unlike Minerva!
    And while I'm in now-go-read-this-comic mode, I have to point everybody toward Academia Nuts. It's an old college newspaper strip about a bunch of graduate students... similar to Avalon, if Avalon were drawn well. :-) I found this one by accident one day, and I had to check it out because I was planning on using the name as a chapter title one day. Oh well... now go read Academia Nuts!

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2000
    I finally picked a name for Volume 1: Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Study Here. I hope it's not too much of a rip-off. :-) I also added a Story Index to the Archive section. This index has a brief synopsis of each storyline, to help you find specific groups of Avalon strips.
    And to keep it from running off the News section, I'll reiterate: go visit Road Waffles! Do it before another major character is killed off and/or eaten!

Monday, Jan. 24, 2000
    I've added a Fan Art page within the Misc. section. Thanks to Richard for being the first person to submit Avalon fan art! Go check out his drawing of Ceilidh from the New Year's party. I'd also like to encourage others to show me up with renditions of their favorite Avalon characters. :-)
    Also, I just discovered that Corey Marie Kitley, creator of Sit and Spin, has awarded Avalon the Corey's Thumbs Up Comic Pick of the Week award! Thanks go to Corey for getting drunk and picking Avalon. ;-) Now go visit Sit and Spin!

Saturday, Jan. 22, 2000
    The results are in for the various things people hate to hear their bus driver say. 30% of respondants really hate it when the driver suggests he/she doesn't know where the heck he/she is. 25% don't enjoy being told to get comfy with the other 150 people in the back of the bus. 20% have difficulty listening to the driver complain about how tired he/she is. 13% never want to hear about how they just got on the wrong bus and can't get off until they reach the other end of town. And finally, 11% don't take well to being informed that they'll be skipping the next few stops.
    Keeping with every student's favorite topic, this week's poll tries to judge how the average Avalon reader fares at school. Hopefully the average reader is doing better than Josh is these days. :-)

Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2000
    Eight has been plugging my site for a couple months now, so the least I can do is plug his... go read Road Waffles! The comic in which the main character has finally died in a gunfight (it was only a matter of time...). :-)

Sunday, Jan. 16, 2000
    The Cast and Links sections have (finally!) been updated.

Saturday, Jan. 15, 2000
    Interesting poll results from last week... it would seem 69% of respondents though Ceilidh should go out with Phoebe. I'd love to hear what the two would say about that (though it probably wouldn't be reprintable). :-) Joe was the poor fob in second place with 17% support. Ryan got 6% of the support, with the ultimate insult going to both Alan and that office staff guy (4% apiece).
    Yeah, another lame poll this week. :-) This was actually inspired by my own trips on the bus... in fact, I have personally heard every one of these statements from various drivers. I find them all pretty scary, but you get to pick the worst.

Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2000
    Another achievement in the Parade of Meaningless Milestones... Avalon broke 500 hits in one day! Thanks to everyone who sat there constantly clicking the Reload button. ;-)
    And thanks go out to my friend Washu for helping me with the technicalities of today's comic... we discussed the ideal speaker power necessary for a siren to blackout a local power grid. All that's left now is to test it...

Monday, Jan. 10, 2000
    I'll try to kill the obvious question right away... OAC is a sort of "Grade 13" in Ontario high schools. Students need to take OAC courses in order to apply for Ontario universities, so they include the most advanced curriculum you'll find in a high school. And now you know. :-)

Saturday, Jan. 8, 2000
    Now we know what Avalon fans think of Rush. :-) 57% either don't know about the quintessential rock band, or don't care enough to vote on how much they like/dislike them. 17% do care to admit they appreciate the band, 10% dislike Geddy Lee's falsetto, another 10% claim Rush has nothing on the Tragically Hip, and 7% of faithful readers are committing heinous crimes to honour their favorite band.
    If you haven't noticed, the poll questions are growing more and more lame. :-) Help me fix this by submitting poll ideas! And if you already have submitted an idea, please harrass me through e-mail until I acknowledge it, because my memory's shot...

Saturday, Jan. 1, 2000
    Well, we're all still alive after New Year's, and another weekly poll is upon us. The results of the Y2K-hysteria poll were rather tell-tale: most people seemed sick of the hype, with 36% hoping that everyone would realize nothing bad would happen (or claiming that the new millenium doesn't begin until 2001). 32% of respondants are the enterprising sort, hoping to score some electronics during the riots. 12% were hoping for an uneventful evening; 10% wanted Times Square to suffer a power outage; and as many people wanted to see Great Big Sea as much as they wanted to see their bank accounts wiped out (5% each).
    Today's poll is, again, largely unrelated to Avalon. I'm just running out of ideas for poll questions. :-) If anyone out there has some ideas, please, send them to me!