Bits and bobs

Unless I find time later in my day, just a brief update…

Wednesday morning, I wrote a new piece for Reaction, which you can read over there. I usually write a piece each week and I should try to remember to link to them when I can. My new piece deals with one of my favourite topics, which is social media, journalism, and the notion of “authority”. It’s a response to Twitter’s long overdue annotation of some Trump tweets. I try not to get too deep into literary theory but I think it’s a decent attempt at putting the latest development into the much bigger picture.

Wednesday afternoon I wrote off – along with my back – thanks to a bit of gardening. I utterly hate gardening but the weeds are rampant this time of the year. I hadn’t left the house in weeks and when I did a few days ago, I found a weed the size of a triffid has spouted next to the front door. Huge bugger of a thistle. Anyway, I’ve climbed most of that mountain and they should be good for another month. I don’t like using weed killer since I try to be environmental if I can. Plus there are better ways. I use boiling water from the kettle, which they say works better than anything. It is also cheaper than Weedol and relatively green. The only problem is that it takes ages to keep filling and then heating up the kettle. I might have to resort to the nasty stuff before the summer is done.

My evening was wiped out watching the SpaceX launch which was scrubbed with about 15 minutes on the clock. They’ll try again on Saturday. I’m a casual space geek. I watch the Youtube channels but not religiously, love a good science documentary, find Elon Musk compelling when he’s talking science and can’t entirely explain the other Musk who appears to enjoy spending his spare time trolling me.

My late evening: Community. I keep meaning to write something about the show and might do that once I finish this rewatch. I’m in the middle of the last season, so perhaps I might get around to it next week.

Meanwhile, I’m up to about 30 new cartoons, which I’ve been slowly working on for about three weeks. I’m still not entirely sure my brain is clicking in the right gear or if I’m suffering from my usual inability to critique my own work.

Lastly, the PC. Still having problems with this old machine but I now feel that it should limp through the summer. I’ve abandoned my plan to buy a new machine but have a new goal of building one over the coming months. It will take me ages but I figure I might be able to save quite a bit by shopping around, buying maybe one component every month or two, and then putting it together myself.

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Why Dunciad.com?

It’s a cool domain name and it was available. Yes, I know. Available. Crazy, isn’t it?

Really?

Yes. It also helps that it’s also my favourite satire written by Alexander Pope, one of the most metrically pure English poets who also knew his way around a crude insult or two. If you’ve not read it, you should give it a try.

So this is satire, right?

Can’t deny it. There will be some. But it’s also an experiment in writing and drawing, giving work away for free in order to see how many people are willing to support a writer doing his thing. It’s the weird stuff that I wouldn’t get published elsewhere in this word of diminishing demands and cookie-cutter tastes.