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How You Know If You’ve Seen One.

So more Hugo Reviews are coming, don’t you worry – but in the meantime I’ve had the autotuned song-remix of the “Double Rainbow” video in my head for DAYS now.

Double Rainbow Song!

(And here’s the original video in case you haven’t seen it…)

Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10

Maybe now I’ve spent an evening making a flowchart I can get some sleep. OH MY GOD IT WAS SO INTENSE.

(Many thanks to Lizbt for her creative consultation and invaluable inking skills…)

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Update Without A Purpose

I took this photo at an airport, it was on a sign listing objects that were not allowed on board, and I have put it here for want of any photo actually relating to this post. Looking at it again, I can’t help but think what I thought at the time – Why do spears get their own special category? What about machetes, and chainswaws, and 18th century smallswords? It just seems unfair.

Anyway…

Busy day writing, about halfway through the novel, which is way, way short of where I should be this far into the month. I have been playing Braid a little on breaks, and Assassin’s Creed too. (I know, a year after everyone else played it.) I may review one or both of those games at a later date. For now, a short break to see what’s new on the interweb and then back into the world of the book.

I just wanted to let you all know that I’m still here, and that I still love each and every one of you.

Just like Marilyn Manson loves the company of pale women who like to wear little-to-no clothing,  fundamentalist Christians love a good book burning, and airport security staff love making you feel welcome. (See how I brought it back there?)

I’ll see you all on the other side in July.

P.S I pulled my head out of my writin’ laptop long enough to stick it in a freezer. Google “241543903″ and you will discover that this is not at all unusual behaviour.

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I have been breaking up my important Plants vs. Zombies project with novel writing sessions.

Not entirely sure when things got switched around like that, but here’s the proof…

Zombies = 0  Wild Particle’s Lawn = 1

Procrastination = 2

Novel = 1.ehh

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Where the Buffalo Roam

Well, actually I am reliably informed there are no buffalo or any land animal of similar size where I am going. But nor will there be any internet, any telephones and there is even a monitorium on wristwatches.

I am entering final week of my January theatre sabbatical, which involves 6 days in a remote hinterland town to focus exclusively on the work. So I will be posting even less than I have been. Which is to say – not at all.

I drew a cartoon for you all, of a solitary figure standing in the wilderness whispering “1-0-0-1-1-1-0-1-1-0″ to a tree, having been driven irrevocably mad by an enforced lack of technology. But then I realised I have no scanner, nor a camera to take a photo of it.

So until I return to RL and the blessed interweb, this is WP, signing off…

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Covered in Ivy and Animal Skins.

Greetings Gentle Reader

Apologies for the infrequent posting. I have begun 2009 with a creative sabbatical in warmer climes – which is proving intense, inspiring and invigorating. Unfortunately it also means I have been condemned to a cripplingly slow dial-up connection for most of January. It also means I have little time to regale you all with stories of geekery and share my cartoons and photographs. Be assured I shall return in more regular mode in February.

Here is a photograph I took a ways down the road from my little suburban home away from home.

Some playful individuals seemingly took an discarded couch as an invitation to contruct an impromtu art installation!

It is in many ways a perfect encapsulation of my January. The comic/tragic masks of drama, coupled with alfresco dining. I have no idea who set it up or why – but it was delightful to stumble across.

Sometimes I am the happy face, beaming my way through rigorous exercise, activity and challenge. Then at other times I am the sad one, lamenting bitterly the lack of my usual creature comforts, constant companions and (most importantly) a decent computer.

For those of you whose year may not have started with the bang you expected and are looking for some inspiration or gentle prodding, check out Lizbt’s new project. Its well worth a look and sure to shake up the cocktail of your life like a manic mariachi bartender in the throes of Pentecostal ecstacy. Or something like that.

Viva La January, peoples.

W

(No animals were harmed in the making of this post.)

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Be Careful What You Wish For….

I guess I should have suspected this.

Early in the morning hours I was caught mid-preparation and duly photographed.

Life Goal Achieved. Idle cartooning thoughts made a reality. Should I be worried? Is the photographer in question just checking off items on a list so she can bump me off with a clear conscience? Only time will tell…

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The Tag it Tag-eth Every Day

Alright. Not sure if by doing this I am indulging in a pseudo-chain letter, but I’ll give it a go.

I was linked to by the The Confusions of HogSandwich, she of the delightful eye-and-avian banner.

Apparently this is what I am supposed to do…

The rules:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog!

Here we go.

FACT the FIRST – I do not like moths.

I think my distaste can be all traced back to a vivid nightmare I had as a young child wherein I had been permanently  transformed in to a bat. I wasn’t very satisfied with my new life, and I remember in particularly nauseating detail the method of sustenance I was forced into.  Moths were on the menu night after horrible night, and I recall the exact texture of the pasty residue the moth dust left around the edges of my little bat-mouth. *shudder* Years later I was being filmed for a television show, standing next to a wall adorned with dozens of moth specimens, all framed and impaled for perusal ranging from the tiny to the gargantuan (behe-moth even?), many of which were NOT encased in glass. One of the lighting guys kept asking me to move closer to the wall, and I would shift myself as small a distance as I could manage toward the dusty devils, my mouth firmly shut.

(I just couldn’t bring myself to do a Google image search for moths.)

FACT the SECOND -I do not remember mornings.

That is, if I wake up – and you and I have a perfectly lucid conversation – but then I go back to sleep, all knowledge of what was said by either parties will be completely erased when I eventually get up and begin my day. This has proven frustrating and occasionally entertaining for various individuals over the years.

FACT THE THIRD – I am an Advanced Practitioner in Stage Combat as Accredited by the British Academy of Dramatic Combat.

No, really.

See.

(Why didn’t they teach me Sword and Cloak I wonder? Didn’t want to tick every box probably, leave me thirsty for more….)

FACT the FOURTH – I hold a pen or pencil like some kind of clawed beast unfamiliar with the writing instruments of man.

Which helps explain my drawing style.

FACT the FIFTH – I have been known to sing snatches of whatever song I am listening to on my headphones at top volume while  cycling into the city for business or pleasure.

I don’t seem to be entirely in control of this phenomenon, and have startled my fair share of pedestrians waiting at traffic intersections. On the positive side I think it has prevented one or two cab drivers from opening their doors directly into me as I serenade past.

(I’m listening to Amanda Palmer’s fantastic new album compulsively at the moment, so if someone flies past you on a bicycle and shouts/sings, “Civil war soldiers who probably infected her!”, then its probably me.  Hi,  nice to see you.)

FACT the SIXTH – I have two small scars.

One is from a motorcycle accident, the other from losing my grip and sliding down into a rock pool while trying to climb out of a steep valley in a rainforest. (Impressed yet?)

FACT the SEVENTH – I have trouble sorting actual memories from their subsequent re-invention as stories.

That is, stuff happens, I tell stories about stuff happening – but quantifiably different stuff happening in different ways than it actually did. Then I forget the actual stuff that happened and remember the story. Not that I think I am alone in this. But it is a fact nevertheless.

(But Fact the Sixth up above is God’s Honest Truth, I swear…)

Now look out for those that are about to be tagged…

Lizbt
Becky Lou (yeah, so Suz already put her, but I don’t know many people with blogs..)
M1K3Y
Rjurik Davidson
All Kings is Mostly Rapscallions
Nothing Rhymes with Rachel

I too cannot think of a 7th.