I’m a dyed in the wool lefty. I always have been, I always will be. It seems so absolutely natural to me that people who are in the lucky position (and that’s all of us, more below) of having more should help those who don’t. When I’m faced with the rabid hell-scape of the sort … Read more
I had a thought in the shower this morning. It’s this: there are some things that you can only understand when you’ve looked at them from the outside. By outside I mean from a perspective that is different to the one when you’re in it. Take social media. I was in Twitter right from the … Read more
I’ve now been off all social media for about 18 months. My last post was on May 8th 2020: I’m only embedding that because …WordPress… Do I dip into it? No. I never, ever do. I mean, I never was one of those people (weirdos) who log into their Twitter account and look back over … Read more
I’ve noticed an interesting phenomena in These Strange Times. I might be late to the party in noticing this, but hey, fuck it, shoot me. Whereas it’s obvious to all concerned – and there has been much written about this – that we’re all spending forever on Zoom calls, this one is everso slightly not … Read more
Like most sane people, I’m concerned with issues around freedom of speech, so I was interested to see recent discussions about Trump and Twitter, the removal of Parler from All The Places and the end of Voat. With each of these – and yes, I’ve also just listened to the hilarious James O’Brien / Piers … Read more
A few things seem to have coalesced recently to make me think quite hard about “moral redundancy”. A bit of a trigger for this post was the story about the lorry deaths in Essex (and can I just say that the graphic on that page showing the positions of the people in the back of … Read more
{ I wrote this in February 2020 – firstly just for myself, then a limited “audience” of a few friends – but now for anyone that is interested… } I’ve been a dabbler, an infrequent sitter, for ten years or more. I’ve been a semi regular for two years. It’s been a proper daily thing … Read more
My editorial policy* roughly for this blog roughly aligns with: if rant, post on The Rantimator, if more considered, post here. I’m going to break that rule: here comes a rant. I get that Christmas is an important time. I get that families like to hang out together. I get that an awful lot of … Read more
There’s too much noise. Too much opinion. Too many things to listen to. Too much stuff to read. There’s always been too much, probably since the moment Sludge1 crawled out of the swamp and couldn’t keep up with all the groovy things that Sludge2 was clearly up to with all his Sludgy mates over on … Read more
Not as in “I’m looking outside my front door and my front garden is full of journalists baying for my blood” but as in this: Yes. There it is, a Polymetaal Ething Press HS-35. Get in. I’ve hankered after some kind of press since I got serious about printing. Although a good baren does the … Read more