Recently updated blogs

Sometime ago, Vic Reeves posted this on Twitter - if I remember right, it's artwork for a tour poster that was never used. Immediately I flashed on Martin Parr's Boring Postcards book.And then I thought of the graphic that Julian House cooked up for my big Wire piece on Hauntology. And then the album art of second-wave hauntologists Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan And this got me thinking about the …

Check out As in guillotine... for more. In which I briefly comment on the books I read each month, so a few years from now when I’m trying to remember one of them, I’ll be able to find it here. I’m a media omnivore, too, so this immediately evolved into more than just books, but I’m sticking with the book-first theme anyway. Do we have similar tastes, or will you …

If you want your webapp to paint behind the status bar at the top of an iphone, you can just add these meta tags: <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes"> <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="black-translucent">

I spoke about cards at Papercamp 3 a little over a week ago. And I saw Tom Abba for the first time in person, since, perhaps, he and Duncan talked at the first card-based meetup I hosted in 2013. Which was nice. Then I repeated the talk at Friday’s monthly Cardstock online meetup. As usual, we recorded it, and you can watch it here: It was a talk about the …

What was once a vast industrial precinct in Launceston. These iconic sawtooth buildings were storage for wool and were an important visual reminder of the precincts industrial heritage. Sadly they were demolished and whilst machinery was meant to be reinstated with interpretive panels when the area was redeveloped, this never happened. Sadly there isn’t much to go off today of what once stood - it’s important, even if places are …

I was creating a simple website for my daughter’s art, and I wanted to do it quickly while maintaining a semblance of rhythm and modularity. I don’t want to spend time maintaining it, but I should remember how things work when I come back. The best way to do that was to use already-done, researched, and working methods, especially with typography and spacing. A modular scale, like a musical scale, …

Herbert in comments has been asking me about urban rail on ring roads; Nuremberg has such a road with an active debate about what to do with it. Ring roads are attractive targets for urban rail, since they tend to be wide commercial throughfares. The one in Nuremberg is especially attractive for a tramway, or possibly a medium-capacity metro if one can be built cheaply; this is an artifact of …

The Three Investigators #23 The Mystery of the Invisible Dog by M. V. Carey, 1975. Shortly after Christmas, a frightened man, Fenton Prentiss, calls the Three Investigators to his apartment to help him. Mr. Prentiss is an elderly art collector, and he says that he is being haunted. Things in his apartment get moved around when he’s not there, and he can tell that someone has been reading the mail …

My last book spine poem was made last winter, on a seasonal theme.* With autumn slipping in and the evenings becoming short here in Ireland, a new book spine poem (aka bookmash) suggested itself. * Sleep the Big Sleep When the lights go down One by one in the darkness, Teach yourself to Sleep the big sleep, The great escape, The pursuit of oblivion – Dreams, nightwood, White noise beyond …

Oregon Department of Transportation is repaving portions of Main Street in Ashland. And when I say “portions” I mean it. They are just repaving the strips where the rubber meets the road. So far they’re just completing the center lane. They may come back and do the other lanes later, but it’s kind of funny to look at the road and see the two strips of fresh asphalt in the …

A rare example of a crazy wall in the real world or, at least, as the background for a press photo.(Thanks Šmingvin.)

Guest post by Nettie Williams (no relation) as part of my ongoing series. The shop choice is well-timed – today is World Vegetarian Day. Neil’s got a lot on partly because he’s promised to review all the shops on the Triangle. Pressure! Franchise it out, I suggested. And now here I am, in between jobs, with time on my hands, doing a review to help a mate out. The shop …

Dear Captain Awkward, I have a travel dilemma I’m hoping you can help with. I’m part of a group of 6 friends (all mid-thirties, she/her) who started hanging out as freshmen in college and who’ve been very close nearly as long. One of these friends will be working in Europe for the next few months, and the rest of us are considering taking a short trip to visit her/sightsee a …

This is the one

I thought that everything would change when I got the surgery. For years, I’d been utterly miserable. Everything and everyone seemed to communicate that I was unworthy, unlovable, and inhuman. Growing up, I figured maybe things would change down the line. It got to the point where I went to bed praying that God would fix me. But that never happened, and by the time I hit college I was …