Messrs and Mesdames, I do formally convey my presence.

By day I take on the disguise of a 42-year-old systems tester at an investment firm. I consider myself a veteran anime lover, having been watching the stuff since I was 5 years old. Whether or not I was always aware of it is another story...

Despite being a Math graduate from university, I am still prone to occasional spells of creativity.

Actually, I am a fan of animation as a whole, not just anime. In that broader sense, my first love remains the Golden Age Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry shorts. I'm also a major fan of animation from the '80s and '90s, where character development seemed more the norm than the exception.

Besides that, I also enjoy watching movies, reading comics (favorite character: The Punisher), listening to music, and tinkering with my home theatre system. This isn’t to say that I live a sedentary lifestyle; I am active at the gym and also practice kickboxing where I hold a Third Dan Black Belt.

How I manage to accommodate all of this within a twenty-four hour day remains a mystery, even to me.

Edit: 07/13/2020 - 01:30 (South African Standard Time)

So Crime Hits Back is now in its final chapter, in which I'm hoping to include the epilogue as well. If I can't make that work, then the epilogue will have to be its own chapter. Then after that, it's back to my familiar stomping ground of Hey Arnold and back to Rhonda V. I'm still working on the second chapter of this one, but I'd prefer to be done with my Scooby-Doo tale before focusing all my energy on the next project. I expect the next chapter of Rhonda V to be up sometime next week, assuming all goes well. As an aside, the first chapter was written mainly to remind me that the project was still pending and that I should at least light a fire under myself and get something out there.

Edit: 05/25/2020 - 01:55 (South African Standard Time)

Well, this sucks. Usually I aim to release stories and chapters on a Monday or Friday morning. This weekend, however, saw me frantically trying to get my new PC sorted out. It's an SFF i5 in which I upped the RAM and swapped in a 1TB SDD. The only thing is, it wouldn't power on and no-one could tell me why. Only late yesterday evening did I pinpoint the reason: a faulty display port. So now it's back to the shop to have it fixed once and for all. This is important as I can't work with a single monitor anymore. Anyway, it also means that chapter 8 of Crime Hits Back will be delayed slightly. At least I'm about 80% done with it, so the delay shouldn't be a long one.

Edit: 05/16/2020 - 01:00 (South African Standard Time)

So I've taken a break from Hey Arnold to focus on a Scooby-Doo fic. Chapter 6 of Crime Hits Back nears completion, marking maybe the two-thirds point or thereabouts. Following that one's completion, it'll be on to Rhonda V, which I hope to be the end of an unintentional pentalogy. And we'll be going off with a bang with that one, or so I hope. In fact, the first chapter is already all but done in my head.

Edit: 04/02/2020 - 01:00 (South African Time)

Rhonda IV is officially done and dusted. Time to begin with the new stuff. You'd think that being under lockdown would give me all the time for writing. But no, my position at work has been deemed an essential service, so now I'm working remotely from home for the foreseeable future. You'd also think this would be a prime opportunity to binge on Netflix and whatnot. Yeah, about that...when everyone on lockdown is having the same idea. And this, Ladies and Gentleman, is where a vast collection of blu-rays and 4K blu-rays comes in handy: no bandwidth required. The joys of physical media.

Edit: 03/08/2020 - 22:15 (South African Standard Time)

So now with In Her Honor and He's Not Into You, Lucy van Pelt! wrapped up, the Rhonda anthology has been promoted to my main project. I'm also in the planning stages of some new projects:

1) I'm incubating an idea for a Scooby-Doo fic, in which I'm aiming for a hard T-rating.

2) Then there's a Kim Possible work in the planning stage. That one's planned for an M-rating.

3) Of course, there'll be more Hey Arnold stories, with a continuation of the Rhonda anthology in the works.

Edit: 02/16/2020 - 22:03 (South African Standard Time)

Woo-hoo! The last chapter (27) of In Her Honor has finally been edited and tweaked and will be going live shortly. So ends a project that I started a year ago and have seen through to the end. Rhonda IV now becomes my main project, plus I've been drawing up a framework for a Kim Possible story. We'll see how the latter develops.

Edit: 12/29/2019 - 0:15 (South African Standard Time)

What a productive month December has been. With kickboxing classes closed for December, I found myself with more free time in the evenings. More time for writing. So instead of 2, maybe 3 chapters a month, this month will see me release an unprecedented (for me, at least) 5 chapters.

Edit: 12/21/2019 - 1:50 (South African Standard Time)

Woohoo! Chapter 23 of 'In Her Honor' is done! Now on to the editing/spellchecking. Expect it to go live within the next 72 hours. Plus, my collection of Hey Arnold paraphernalia continues to grow now that the baseball figures are home with me. They're all great figures, though why Helga's mask isn't removable is a question whose answer eludes me. My favorite one has to be Phoebe with the dropped baseball and the oblivious look on her face.

Edit: 11/29/2019 - 23:58 (South African Standard Time)

So now Black Friday is a thing in South Africa as well and I'm done already with most of my shopping. Nothing major, just an Amazon order comprising a few 4K movies and a set of Hey Arnold figures, the one with the characters playing baseball. They join the Arnold bobblehead that forms part of my profile pic, as well as the Arnold and Helga Funko Pop figures which I still haven't removed from their boxes. Helga's not too pleased about that; she keeps scowling at me threateningly. On Black Friday proper, I'll be ordering the Gerald Funko Pop figure from a local retailer to complete the set.

Edit: 11/02/2019 - 16:56 (South African Standard Time)

BOKKE!!! So I watched what had to be the most scintillating RWC final in memory, and not just because the Springboks won. To my readers from England, I'm back to loving you too. At least your team did what no-one else could do in this tournament: beat New Zealand. BOKKE!!!

Edit: 10/27/2019 - 21: 56 (South African Standard Time)

GO BOKKE!!! So this morning I watched the Springboks book their place in the RWC Final after a grinding war of attrition against Wales. I'd like to take this opportunity to announce to my Australian and New Zealander reader(s) that as a result of the current RWC situation, I'm no longer required by South African law to hate you or your countries or their respective rugby associations. Peace out!

Edit: 10/24/2019 - 00:56 (South African Standard Time)

So I've pulled chapter 19 of In Her Honor for a series of rewrites. I discovered that the end of the chapter would not allow me to continue the story along my intended path. Plus, retconning would be impossible without creating a major tonal contradiction. So the rewrite is underway, but it won't take long. My sincerest apologies for releasing a substandard product.

Edit: 10/06/2019 - 01:44 (South African Standard Time)

Chapter 18 of In Her Honor progresses nicely. As with each preceding chapter, the hardest part is getting started. But once I'm past the 500-word mark, I find myself in my stride. Or as rappers would put it: "In the pocket". That's the point when ideas translate to words more easily and flowingly. It's still slow going since I stop frequently to check for continuity, cross-reference earlier events, and generally make the endeavor more difficult for myself.

Edit: 09/13/2019 - 16:27 (South African Standard Time)

Chapter 17 of In Her Honor progresses slowly but surely. This is a rather dialogue-heavy chapter, so I'm going to some lengths to get the dialogues and other details just right. Judging purely by the word count so far, I'd say I'm at the halfway point.

Edit: 08/13/2019 - 22:01 (South African Standard Time)

In Her Honor might be my main project, but I do find the need to write the shorter, sweeter tales firstly for a change of pace and secondly, as an occasional literary palate cleanser after a particularly heady chapter. Now that the latest addition to He's Not Into You, Lucy van Pelt is done, it's all systems go with the main project!

Edit: 08/07/2019 - 00:55 (South African Standard Time)

Woo-hoo! Chapter 15 of In Her Honor is done, now on to the editing and the Author's Notes! Expect it to go live within the next 48 hours.

Edit: 07/28/2019 - 19:04 (South African Standard Time)

So I'm kinda in-between chapters right now for In Her Honor. I've taken to some R&R with Nickelodeon Kart Racers, which I've entered as Exhibit 1452 for not putting much all my stock in game reviews and metascores. The one obvious downer is the lack of voice acting (Not having Helga being able to speak in such a free-for-all environment is such a missed opportunity!) but at least it's not a deal-breaker since the characters' personalities expressed through their animations.

The reviews also mention severely unfair AI, but is that necessarily a bad thing? They keep spamming with the attacks and being in the lead is not always best for you, but isn't that true also for when you're engaged in multiplayer and the special attacks come thick, fast, and cheap? Essentially you're getting the full multiplayer experience in single-player mode!

Finally, it can truthfully be said that NKR is not a patch on the Super Mario Kart series, but at the same time, it can be said with equal truthfulness that Super Mario Kart doesn't offer you the chance to play as either Arnold Shortman or Helga Pataki. And for me, that is the deciding factor.