As some of you may have noticed, these was a distinct lack of my presence on deviantART. Hell, there was a lack of my presence on the entire Internet. For all intends and purposes, I did not exist, well, except for maybe a few very close friends and my family. This period is what would become my sabbatical from the Internet.

It all started way back in January, when my roommate announced that he would leave Rotterdam to pursue a life in Breda. In principle, this should not have been a problem; we were living our own lives and the landlord clearly agreed with us that if one of us were to leave, the one left behind would get to rent the house. Simple, isn't it, and that is what we set out to do.
We set the wheels in motion to make this happen; naturally, I didn't sign any utility contracts and whatnot until we were absolutely sure that the deal was sealed. A few weeks went by until we finally got word from the landlord; there was not going to be a transfer, they wanted to sell the house instead, which they set out to do with every house whose tenant voluntarily leaves.

After my roommate exhausted everything he could do, me and my family took it upon ourselves to broke a deal with the landlord. Since most of it is none of your damn business, I'll spare you the details, but on this day, we finally got the confirmation that this apartment is going to be on my name, which means that I finally can truly call this place my home.

This means that for the past few months, I've been living with a lot of uncertainty. There was a very real chance that I was going to lose my home due to circumstances I did not have full control over. I was in a quantum state between living somewhere and being homeless, the latter meaning that I had to pack up and move back in with my parents and find a new place to live. It also meant that I was very careful about signing any contracts for an Internet connection. In a way, I didn't mind. I was able to cope without Internet for much of my childhood and when I just moved in here, this was not going to be a new thing, though the timing was certainly inconvenient.

In short, I waited until things were looking more promising, it was at that moment I decided it was safe enough to order an Internet connection. Today, my Internet connection was activated, as well as a brand new laundry machine delivered and and installed, and I also installed new ceiling lights all over the place. With the risk of having to move out gone, I'm going to shop for a couch and coffee table soon. Once that arrives, the house is fully operational again. In the upcoming months, bit by bit, I'm going to further personalize the house. It is going to be pretty exciting.

During the time I was without a permanent means of accessing the Internet, aside from almost maxing out my phone connection, I spend quite some time rebranding my corporate identity, working on a new logo, stationary and website. I also did some practicing for the animated documentary and other minor art things. I also played games that I had forgotten, such as Beyond Good and Evil, which I played in Dutch this time because, well, because. It also gave me incentive to do some video editing work that had been piling up, which means that you can now watch my trip reports of UK2010 and Ierland 2011 on YouTube, in full HD and with English subtitles.

If this sabbatical taught me anything, it's that the Internet is extremely distracting. It's very easy to get caught up in its intricate web of side-quests upon side-quests. While it certainly helped me with a lot of things, it makes it very easy to lose focus.

Anyway, long story short, I'm back. Perhaps not entirely the same way as before, but it should be for the better. I will start by uploading a rather interesting piece later today, which is related to my past.

It's good to be back.

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