Thursday, December 29, 2005

More things I've learned

Christmas is over, New Year is just around the corner, let’s have a look at what I learned this year.
1. Work doesn’t have to suck, but it quite often does.
2. Not everybody is out for themselves but when push comes to shove they’ll always put themselves first.
3. Just because I’ll get over ‘Oz’ ending doesn’t mean I have to like it.
4. Sleep is my friend, we should spend more time together.
5. I’m ready to be a dad, fortunately my wife’s ready to be a mam so that’s pretty good timing.
6. Saturday’s are greatly improved with the simple addition of Doctor Who.
7. There should be a Ghost Story for Christmas every year, and maybe more often than just Christmas.
8. It’s nice to have blogpals.
9. Putting off failure by doing nothing (or coming up with ways to not complete stuff) is poor compensation for actually attempting something.
10. Being an open book isn’t neccesarily a bad thing, forcing people to read every single page is a bit annoying though.
11. Mmmm, soup.
12. Time spent doing nothing is not always time spent relaxing.
13. I’ve been missed out on Bonnie Prince Billy and it took me ages to get round to reading Ramsey Campbell, what else am I missing out because I’m not making the effort (or wasting my time with filler)?
14. Ipod Shuffle’s are cool.
15. I usually get there in the end.
16. Lancaster is lovely.
17. It’s not easy doing the right thing but doing the wrong thing will always create a bigger longer lasting headache.
18. Lost is no Carnivale, it’s also no Strangehaven and it might even be no good and it’s okay to not care about it.
19. There’s a lot of good books, films and comics coming out but I can’t buy all of them and shouldn’t even try.
20. You can’t beat fresh food and home cooking.
There’s probably loads more things I learned this year but this is starting to sound like that dopey ‘Wear Sunscreen’ thing. The more observant folk will see some pretty obvious things in my list, all I can say is I sort of knew some of these things before, but I’ve had them driven home to me this year.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Hope Santa brings you everything you want. I've got a glass of port, enough cheese to kill a rhino, a Sherlock Holmes adaptation on the telly, and my wife by my side, so Santa'll have to work pretty hard to top that!

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

It's that time of year..... Christmas.

Christmas is almost here and I can’t believe how quickly it’s come round and how unfestive it all feels. Wish that wasn’t the case but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to get into the Christmas spirit. Also knowing that I get to spend a couple of hours on Christmas Eve and only the morning and a bit of Christmas day afternoon with Rebecca sort of takes the shine off things.
We’ve done half of our family visiting now by spending a couple of days in the North East, visiting the place of my birth and seeing how much of it has been bulldozed to make way for new houses that the people from the area can’t afford. Actually some of the regeneration is nice and long over due, but it’s still feels strange seeing it all looking so different and knowing that the people who live there are not necessarily the ones who’ll benefit.
In a weeks time we’ll be doing the over half of the visiting and then maybe we can spend some time together.
I’ve emailed my comic script to the editor of the Manga-ish project, so I’ll find out how that goes down soon. Kind words from Danny have made me feel a bit more confident about it and I’m looking forward to drawing it knowing how much it’ll change when it’s drawn - at the moment I don’t think it shows the manic edge I hope my artwork’ll bring. Anyway, it’s a quirky throwaway little story that features a preocupation I finally get to exorcise as my other attempts to do so didn’t seem to go anywhere.
As well as my comic strip I also plan to finish all my writing projects throughout the coming year. They all seem to have all stalled for one reason or another and I’d really like to get some, gulp, *closure* on them as I think they could be good and I want to move on. So with a bit of work and luck you might all get to read samples of, ‘Indian Ink’ (or ‘Ink on Paper’ - an ‘no-prize’ for anyone who get’s the reference, and another one if you know what a ‘no-prize’ is), ‘Green and Pleasant Land’ (or ‘A Green World’), ‘Runt’s Tale’ and an untitled kid’s book about punk and zombies. I wouldn’t mind writing another Simian Smith story either, but it’s early days and I’ve only got a vague idea that involves a big family of high class pampered rich scum - hopefully Chandler would approve!

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Things I've learnt since my last post

1. League Of Gentlemen are brilliant and their panto was excellent.
2. It’s nice seeing family.
3. I like nice people and am fed up of not nice people.
4. I don’t think I like getting drunk anymore and I don’t like drunks - whiskey’s still nice though.
5. Depressed people can be very selfish people.
6. Knowing my own mind doesn’t mean I don’t change my mind.
7. I miss writing and drawing.
8. E. L. Konigsburg really is a very good writer.
9. Odo Hirsch is pretty nifty writer too.
10. I wish I was spending more time with my wife - particularly at Christmas.
11. I’m very tired.
12. I’m fed up moaning.
13. Mean and moody is all very well but funny silly is far more endearing.
14. David Tenant is going to be a brilliant Doctor Who and looks aces fighting aliens in his jimjams.

I’ve probably learnt many other things, but they’ll do for now.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Quick late night posting

Just come back from the work/Christmas party (typically for these things there’s still a while to go til Christmas) and yet the only thing I really want to mention (other than I got to wear my brown suit again!) is that last night Rebecca and I watched BlueBeard (our first time) and Carnival of Souls (Rebecca’s first) and they rocked. Dear oh dear, I should get out more.
On the other hand I did have a good night out and drank a White Russian and thought of Danny. Cheers everyone.