school – Lucy Bellwood

A View (2)

Last year I took a photo in this spot on April 11th. Happened to end up here again today while I was talking on the phone with Nia and realized I should do the same thing again. I lay in the grass under the valley oak at the bottom of the hill, stroked the velvety neon leaves unfurling at the end of every twig and branch, and thought about coming here in 5th grade after endless games of Predator/Prey in the groves further up the Saddle.

If the grass is still this green in April I’ll be very surprised, but I’ll take a photo that day and see. We had early rain this year—a rich rush of green. Maybe it’ll hold on. I’m still becoming acquainted with being here for a full year’s cycle.

A photograph of a green, grassy hillside under a blue sky. There's a line of dark oaks at the horizon and a wash of white cloud in the sky.

News

Freedom (from school), Censorship (on the Internet), and Everything Inbetween

Exactly eight minutes ago I sent in my last paper of the semester. I’m officially done with school for the next five weeks, and boy howdy does that ever mean it’s time to post some comics. Thank you all for hanging around as I’ve blundered through the last of my classes.

However, before I can post more comics, I wanted to make a brief post about something that will impact every single person viewing this page (or checking their email, or reading the news online, or promoting their webcomic, or blogging about their travels).

The ████ of the ████████ █████ in ███████. ████ ████████ ██████████!

Oh, wait. You can’t see that? Yeah. Here’s the problem. The Stop Online Piracy Act (otherwise known as SOPA) will be going through the House Judiciary Committee in the next couple of days. For those of you who aren’t familiar with SOPA, it will essentially destroy every trace of the Internet as we know it now. The Act gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the Internet. To see the uncensored text, and to do your bit to make sure that this thing never sees the light of day, please take a second to hit the big ol’ button below:

I not normally a big fan of promoting stuff like this through my personal sites, but this thing is important. It’s crucial. And I’m going to do my damnedest to make sure it doesn’t impact the way I express myself, whether through comics or anything else, via the net.

Thanks, everyone. Stay tuned for more frequent updates, a couple interviews, and some exciting news about next year!

Uncategorized

Mondays

Before I pass out and forget everything, I need to throw this information somewhere for posterity.

I arrived on campus with a bagel and some coffee (rare for me) this morning at 9am. I just got home 10 minutes ago. In the intervening 15.5 hours I…

– Read 120 pages of Rousseau’s political writings

– Attended a lecture on the social contract

– Checked out 5 more books for my thesis

– Wrote a 3-page response essay

– Shipped comics to California, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana

– Read the entirety of Art & Fear and Claire Siepser’s comics-based thesis (~100 pages combined)

– Requested 10 books on inter-library loan

– Cut out and assembled 257 Baggywrinkles buttons

– Read 150 pages of McCloud’s Making Comics

– Wrote critiques of 12 classmates’ comics

– Researched, scripted, and thumbnailed a 4-page comic about the Crimean War

– Revised my thesis proposal

I’m really, really hoping this gives me enough of a reason to slack off for the rest of the week. Goddamn. I don’t know why I do this sometimes.