Bluelemur.org.uk

I popped down to that comics exhibition today. It was pretty interesting, there was quite a range of stuff there. Melinda Gebbie’s work didn’t seem to be there (might still be arguing with Great Ormond Street about the Peter Pan copyright) but the others, including pages of Joe Sacco’s Palestine, were well worth seeing. I might go back and spend a bit more time there if I can.

Met up with crazy peoples from the NaNoWriMo website forums this afternoon. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is an annual challenge to write a 50,000 word novel during the 30 days of November. I’ve attempted it for the last four years and failed every time (although I’ve done a bit more each year, so I’m on track to do a full 50,000 by the time I’m about 70). The Leeds + York regional group arranged a meet-up in Leeds, so I thought I’d go along. Was quite good, lots of very different people there, but all slightly mad cos they’re going to try to write a novel in a month. I’ll probably attempt it again, but since I’m busier than I’ve ever been at the moment, I’m not sure if I have much chance. And I don’t have a fixed idea yet, but there’s over a week before the start.

To aid me, I went and made a few purchases from Borders that I’ve been meaning to get for a while, not just for this. The Oxford Dictionary of English, and the Oxford Thesaurus of English – two hefty tomes of burglar-stunning weight and proportion. And Strunk & White’s Elements of Style, the essential guide for writers. Suppose I’d better use that a bit, I’m sure my punctuation is getting increasingly erratic.

So I found out today, quite by chance, that there’s an exhibition of comics art on at Leeds City Art Gallery right now. Including stuff by Daniel Clowes, Joe Sacco, Robert Crumb and Melinda Gebbie (with Alan Moore). I would have been in a rather bad mood if I hadn’t heard about it until afterwards, but luckily I’ve still got chance to see it. Must find time to go down.

On the subject of comics, my current favourite webcomic is the awesome xkcd. It’s very, very good, despite the minimalistic style. The self described “webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language”, it’s got something of a cult geek following now. If you’re not reading it regularly, you should be.
I’d love a poster of this one on my wall, although my mum wouldn’t be impressed at the swearing:

Lovely sunny day here in Vancouver, so I’m sat on the back steps with my laptop, using the magic of wireless network technology.

Had cash training at work this week, so I’m allowed to be on the tills now. Took a bit of getting used to, all the different things you have to remember, but it’s a bit easier after a few days of it. Not really had to do much work with money before, other than being treasurer for the martial arts club at uni last year. And it’s a bit different when the money you’re collecting is essentially the wages for a six-foot ninja with a sadistic streak. Kinda encourages you to not make too many mistakes. I don’t think any of our managers here are ninjas, but I’m trying not to make mistakes anyway.

Went to a fundraising meal at church last night, organised by the youth group. It was really good, there were over a hundred people there, and the food was fabulous. They had a “Water of Life” theme, so the place was decorated with a sea theme, most of the dishes were seafood, and they showed a Blue Planet DVD while we were eating.

Had a mild epiphany whilst stacking books in the stockroom yesterday, regarding webcomics and what I could do with them. Dusted off my old MSc project when I got in last night, and started working on it again. Haven’t looked at it for six months, so I’m still tidying it up at the moment. Was up till 3:30am working on it, correcting a few errors I didn’t have time to fix before the deadline last October. Should be able to do something interesting with this.