Maybe it’s just a surname thing, but I’ve loved the Sherlock Holmes stories as much as I’ve loved any bit of fiction, since I was old enough to understand them. Hell, as much as they’re one of the progenitors of comics, they’re probably a progenitor of my interest in them.
I’ve gone on a bit, here
Whisky Live: a reminder
Whisky Live is on the 11th and 12th of March. If you want to come, book soon – it sold out in early Feb last year, and I don’t imagine it’ll get less popular. (Those of you from The Frozen North that expressed an interest – care to confirm/deny/reserve couch space for definite?)
(The masterclass details aren’t on the website yet, but should be from tomorrow, I’d expect – the site claims from the 15th, but they probably forgot it was a weekend, or something. I’m probably going to try and do a couple – I’ll throw another post up with details of which, if anyone else is interested…)
So, what’ve I been doing?
Foodshopping, mostly. Last Saturday, I went round Borough Market with burge. Saw many lovely foods, and bought extremely nice cider and brownies. Yesterday, I went to L’artisan du Chocolat (and then the Natural History Museum, which was annoyingly full of small humans, and irritatingly lacking in quality dinosaur action, but fun nonetheless) with zoo_music_girl, and bought what I have every reason to believe will be marvelous chocolate. I haven’t tried any of it yet, because I have a cold, and my tastebuds are shot, and it’d just be wasted on me right now. I shall report back later in the week, though.
And speaking of having colds, this is now the second one I’ve had in as many months. Will whoever it is that goes around giving me diseases please stop it? I had planned to go out and be excitingly social last night, but instead, I staggered home after the NHM and collapsed. This is no good, especially since I can’t take time off work sick while in my probationary period unless I want to add another three months onto it. And since I’d like to buy a house some time in the near future, this is not an option.
Right. I’m going back to bed. If I’m going to be unwell, I will at least take the excuse to lie in bed, read and watch DVDs in a guilt-free manner.
For my own reference
Terrible Lies
Survey rubbish doing the rounds, I’m bored, you do the maths…
Waterstones: bastards.
Those of you who’re disposed to shop at Waterstones may want to read Charlie Stross’ comments on how Waterstones in Edinburgh have fired an excellent employee simply for keeping a blog in his own time. I’m certainly thinking I won’t be shopping there any more.
(link via tinyjo)
Will Eisner is dead.
This will probably mean nothing to most of the people on my friends list. I find that thought almost as depressing as the news itself.
Eisner’s got such a body of work behind him that I’ve never got around to reading it all, but of what I have read, I’ve liked most of. He’s the author of one of only two or three decent texts on the craft and mechanics of comics, and he produced “A Contract With God”, generally reckoned to be the first original graphic novel (a bookshelf comic that had not previously published in serialised form) in 1978. He’s been a huge infulence over the medium, specifically toward a more grown-up market, and were there any justice, he’d be the household name while Stan Lee languished in obscurity.
If you have no idea who he is, you really should check out his work.
2005: Light Writing
So, as I hope most of you are aware, I’ve started a photoblog over at electricana. I started it in an idle moment, figuring that if I put up a couple of images a month, I’d be doing pretty well. Instead, I have suprised myself by managing to put photos up at the rate of more or less one a day. More surprising still, is how rewarding I’ve found doing it.
So I’m going to keep doing it, in the hope that I’ll get better at it. I’m setting myself a target of putting five new photos a week on there every week for the next year.
Why am I telling you this?
Because I’m an attention-seeking tart, obviously. It’s looking like this is going to be my major creative project for the next year, and at the moment, it’s got an audience of about 20 people. I’d like to build that up a bit. So, firstly, this is just a reminder that the journal exists for you to friend if you’d like. It won’t break your friends page, and it won’t be loads of big images. Unless something goes wrong, I won’t be posting more than one picture a day, two at the most, and none of them will be huge. Go on, validate me.
But secondly, and more importantly: Tell your friends. If you see an image you like on there, feel free to repost it in your own journal, providing you credit me, and post a link back to electricana. Do this as often as you like. Encourage others to friend the journal, or link to it in whatever way they’d like, if they’re not on LJ. You will not need to know me in order to (I hope) enjoy the photos. This is not going to be a photo diary, and it won’t contain loads of tedious photos of people they don’t know, unless the shots are interesting in and of themselves.
So. electricana. Tell Your Friends.
That’s that done.
2004 has shat the last of it’s rancid guts out. It’s over. Expired.
Re-fucking-sult.
2005: I’m watching you carefully. You have been warned.
There’s a toast I like at this time of year:
“May those that love us, love us. And those that don’t love us, let God turn their hearts. And if he cannot turn their hearts, let him turn their ankles, so we’ll know them by their limp.”
Happy New Year, everyone.
(And apologies to all at alexdecampi and davebushe‘s place. I left
And So I Speak My Truth Aloud
For one reason or another, I have found myself attempting to articulate the collection of ropey ideas that passes for my beliefs to various people lately. And every damn time I have, I’ve gotten up the following day, and realised I’ve done another dismal job of it, left half of it out or phrased something badly, and that it’s probably left them thinking I’m either strange, credulous, half-mad or half-baked. Or some combination thereof.
So, as the afternoon sun slips away behind the clouds, and 2004 coughs blood and dies in the gutter like the dog it was, I thought I’d attempt to write them up here, so’s I’d have something I can point people at.
Something to remember, before I begin: belief is an analogue state. Some days, most of this is complete rubbish. Other days it’s gospel truth. Most days, it’s somewhere in between – some bits feel more right than others. This is cobbled together from thoughts and ideas from a variety of sources – from my own experiences, from other’s accounts of their experiences, and from observing commonalities between various faiths, schools of though and rantings of mad bastards.
Lastly, and most importantly: these are just my beliefs. Doesn’t make ‘em true, or anything. I’d never suggest that I’ve got a better handle on the way the universe works than anyone else does. This is just what gets me through the week, you know? I reserve the right to change any or all of this based on later experience. Holding beliefs you’re not willing to change is a bit stupid, really.
Half Mad and Half Baked