Author: Michael

Husband, dad,(ex)programmer, comic collector and proud Yorkshireman. I have no idea why im here or why im writing but i rather enjoy it. no great fan of punctuation;

Borag Thungg!

Welcome to my other blog!

I was encouraged by Mel to set this blog up to share some of my passion for 2000AD, something which has been an important part of my life for as long as I remember.  I posted about it from time to time on my main blog here but perhaps she is right and it deserves its own space.

Just some random photos from March

No theme, just things that caught my fancy this month…

Another month of cold miserable weather here and a lot of rugby watching freezing my backside off but there is just something about live sport which I love.  I dont care the level, I would always choose a live game over anything on the TV.  I just adore being out in the cold all wrapped up watching other people knock lumps out of one another.

 

A Few Days Off

Those of you who have followed me for any length of time will know I love to post.  Since I discovered blogging I have enjoyed almost every minute and am happy posting as many times a day as inspiration takes me.

For the last few days though I have taken some time away and just let a few scheduled pieces trickle through.  I’m still as inspired as I was but I just felt frightfully tired and was busier than normal at work and therefore decided to concentrate on simply sleeping more.   I have never been one for a lot of sleep but this week I have craved it terribly and am thoroughly enjoying the idea of an early night.  Instead of the 5 or 6 I usually get by on I have been aiming to get more in the region of 7 to 8 and I feel a lot better for it.

I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things with my writing but right now I am just going to keep writing down ideas and scribbling in my notebook and I will return to writing in a couple of days.

Right now though it’s time for bed 🙂

 

Tomorrow maybe

 

Light golden streams through broken windows

dust dancing on the rays illuminating broken furniture and broken man

He stirs from dreams dark and lucid with eyes hollow

And reaches, smile fading, for what is long lost

while through his fingers glittering hope slips and drips

spiralling downwards and gurgling away

until aching, shaking, breaking he rises

and stumbles, stomach rumbling

and so another day begins cup in hand and faithful dog in tow

hoping perhaps tomorrow will be different

A twinge of fate – March Prompts 25/31

A brief meander

M’s writing prompts for March came with the following instructions:

“…set your timer for ten minutes and begin writing about one of the prompts listed below. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, neatness, or anything like that; just write!”

Let us see what whimsical nonsense I can whip up in ten minutes…

You can see the prompts here.

I’m not a believer in predestination, but I know people are, and that’s great.  In fact, I am not a believer in much other than what I can see or what can be proven.

I used to believe in all sorts of stuff, but no more.  I gave that lark up a few years ago and whilst I’m still working on parts of what I believe I find that mostly, beyond that which can be proven, I think we’re a huge stroke of luck and in this mind mindbogglingly large universe we are very much a ripple in a vast ocean of  chance.

Now I know I should probably have a better answer than that but you know what, I don’t.  A friend of mine insists we are here for a good time not a long time and I like that.  I am not talking pure hedonistic pleasures, simply the pursuit of that which makes you happy.

I reckon that when we’re dead we are simply no more and whatever energy courses through us is released when we are disposed of in which ever way we might choose.

I know it is simple and that lots of people have compelling arguments to the contrary but I don’t really care because I have found a peace that I never had at any other point in my life and I’m rather happy with that.

 

 

 

2000Ad, Elephant Men and Batman

Just a few pieces from my collection

I have a bit of a thing for original comic artwork. Whether pages bought on the internet, usually from the pages of 2000AD or bits and pieces I pick up at comic conventions, I have amassed something of a collection over the last few years.

To hold in your hands the original drawings that make it into the comics you love is quite something and since I picked up my first piece about 8 years ago it remains a real passion. Below are a few pieces I actually found in the cellar that I forgot about. They were picked up at a Comic convention in Leeds and another in London in 2013. I put them in a box when we started house renovations 18 months ago and discovered them this week.

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A quite magnificent Dredd by Gary Erskine. He was kind enough to also let me have the sketch he did. It was amazing to stand and watch him create this and just talk to him about Dredd and Roller Grrrls and all sorts.

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A Mike Collins Rogue Trooper. A real prize possession and a thing of Beauty.

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A John Mcrea Dredd from LSCC which I just adore.

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A much treasured Elephantmen page by Boo Cook. So so good. Below are a few more, some by boo cook and a Batman by Dave Taylor. I have piles more but thought I would just share a few tonight.

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Dieting. 7.

A new dawn?

So either I have absolutely no will power or I am possessed by a rather hungry demon who insists on eating crisps for breakfast and considers a slack handful of sausages and a coke a mid day snack.

I last wrote about dieting in December and I felt pretty motivated back then.  I still feel pretty motivated now to be honest, but I think it is important to not confuse motivation for actions.  I am motivated to do many things but that does not mean I act.  It took me thirty years to take up writing so stopping eating squirty cream from the can is not going to happen overnight.  Saying that overnight is normally when the squirty cream action takes place.

Today though I have woken up with a new motivation.  Mostly I have spent the morning lingering in bed or writing and as it came to lunch time I realised that I had not yet eaten so I figured that probably technically counts as abeing on a diet so yes, the diet is back on.

I have definitely put on weight since I last wrote, I can feel it in the way my clothes fit me even less than they did previously and I can feel it in the way I move.  Not a lot, but enough to tell me that at my age, and given that I spend a lot of my time at a desk, this weight loss lark is only going to get trickier and trickier as I get older.  I imagine having bacon sandwiches every Friday doesn’t help either, but mostly It’s probably down to age and metabolism.

Not the Chinese takeaway I had last night.  Definitely not that.

I love food so not eating is not an option, and having dabbled with dieting forever I think I am going to do my best to stick to Slimming World.  There are eggs, lean bacon and chopped tomatoes in the kitchen which I think I shall make.  I know its not as good as bran or some such but god have you eaten bran?  I’d rather die a bulbous monstrosity who has to wash himself with a rag on a stick than force that down my gullet.  I once took too large a spoon full of the stuff when I was trying to eat more of it to prevent myself dying from bowel cancer, something that kills a lot of men in my family, and it  actually made me gag so difficult was it to chew.  Like a proper eye watering “take it all” kind of gag.

No thanks.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

 

 

 

Dribbles of delight – March Prompts 24/31

Not at all about ejaculation. Honest.

M’s writing prompts for March came with the following instructions:

“…set your timer for ten minutes and begin writing about one of the prompts listed below. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, neatness, or anything like that; just write!”

Let us see what whimsical nonsense I can whip up in ten minutes…

You can see the prompts here.

 

There are times when a prompt will pop up ad I simply think to myself “No Michael, you know how this is going to turn out so just stop right there.”

I don’t have a particularly filthy mind, but I do like to say what I think.  I take a degree of pride in pushing boundaries, testing sensibilities and poking things that should not be poked.  I do however do my best to do so with a degree of humour and a modicum of taste.

I shall therefore leave this one be and just move along quietly because I do still have a certain amount of self control.

Just to be clear in case you were wondering though, it was going to be a toss up between a poem about a chap with an extreme case of premature ejaculation or a woman who discovers the joys of female ejaculation for the first time.

Problem was, for the latter at least, I would have needed to do some research and the wife and kids use my laptop quite regularly so I really did not fancy having to explain the content of my browser to either.

It’s a pity really because lush, rush and gush all rhyme quite wonderfully and you know I would have loved the opportunity to explain that “With shock and surprise, it flew into his eyes, and he screamed “help I think I’ve gone blind!”

But I won’t, because I am better than that…

Pride

Still and silent

He sinks slowly beneath the lapping waves of regret

with heavy heart and harsh words caught still in his mouth

too late too little and two no more he sinks

weighed down by all he will not admit yet craves forgiveness for

and then,  into quiet dark silence

where heart is still and one last time he mouths the words

that she will never hear

People I read – Dorinda Duclos

So much to read so little time.

I try to read as many people as I can but that just is not always possible. Someone I do enjoy though is Dorinda. You can find her blog here.  Dorinda is prolific in her outputs and a fabulous poet who writes on all manner of things and someone I always look forward to seeing pop up in my feed.  Take a look I am sure you will enjoy her just as much.