Recently updated blogs

My favorite post of the year! After reviewing what I’ve written a year ago, I am actually surprised at how different everything has been this time around. That’s why these posts make so much sense and I recommend doing something similar to everyone. It doesn’t have to be published on a blog like I do, but just writing it down to sort out your thinking about what has happened and …

Recently I bought a new car. It’s very fast and very yellow. Here’s a picture of me and Mr ThesisWhisperer with it: In case you are wondering, it’s an EX30 Volvo with a dual electric motor. I bought my first new car at 50 – a Tesla. Now, four years later, I’ve bought a second electric vehicle, a ridiculously yellow EX30 Volvo with a dual motor. Some might question buying …

My accomplished, wonderful pals2024 was difficult—but ultimately very good—for me. Something that got me through the difficult parts was enjoying the successes of my friends, pals, and comrades, of which I offer an incomplete list here, in roughly chronological order:The boffins over at Fenwick released the Think Like a Writer course, which I have taken and personally recommend. Most online courses are bad. Not this one. Instead, it’s a three-week …

Original airdate: December 29, 2024 The premise: When Marge accidentally uses a bottle of Mr. Burns’ prized, irreplaceable wine entrusted to Homer’s care by Smithers, the three cover their tracks thanks to Professor Frink synthesizing a believable replacement. When Smithers expresses his inner turmoil about working for such a wicked, evil man, Marge suggests they produce more fake wine to sell to the rich to use their money for good. …

As 2024 comes to a close, I realize that, due to the unfortunate delays in completing the cover art for Aleyara’s Descent and Other Stories, my only professionally published work in 2024 has been the Star Trek Adventures campaign Synthetic Diplomacy, plus its associated essay (yes, I get paid for those). My only fiction publication on my Patreon, “High and Flighty,” doesn’t even count as a “real” publication, since it’s …

I've been struck by the lack of election-related 2024 Words of the Year from the English dictionaries (for a list, see November's newsletter). So I am here to repair that with my US-to-UK Word of the Year: landslide...which was much-used in its figurative sense to describe the result of the UK election that ended 14 years of Conservative government.some landslide headlines in UK mediaHere's how it it's been showing up …

Link that made us feel the most stoned. December. Shakespearean: When people speak English but with German grammar. Watching this makes us feel stoned. Most Scooby-Doo. November. From the annals of superstimuli: Why Are Dogs So Obsessed With Lamb Chop? (The article doesn’t really deliver an answer, but it’s a good mystery.) Stinkiest post. October. I can smell “the flu” : r/RandomThoughts h/t Collin Lysford Most medieval. October. Medieval Sourcebook: …

Thank you to all who have dropped by here over the past year. I must apologise for not posting more regularly. But still, you will find on this clumsy-looking old blog that started in 2006 a mass of stories and information on the world of graphics, film, book covers, and much more that reveals my views and passion for the creative discipline we share. Here's to a New Year filled …

Let’s close out 2024 and begin 2025 with a long overdue open thread. Now’s your chance to get that otherwise off-topic comment posted at last. From plate tectonics to Hooked on Phonics, from substance abuse to substance dualism, from Thomism to Tom Tom Club, everything is on-topic. Trolls still not welcome, though, so keep it sane and civil.Previous open threads archived here.

Jagua Nana is a remarkable, but forgotten, novel. Set in Nigeria in the immediate aftermath of independence, it centres of Jagua Nana, a forty-five year old sex worker who retains her skills, beauty and fantastic dress sense. She is an icon of Lagos, a woman whose clothing and makeup sets the fashions for everyone else. And a woman who is desired by many men.Jagua wants to settle down and have

A bit of a painfully tenuous title for this blog post, basically to have an excuse to have some sort of image to place at the top there - showing that the audiobook version of Pull to Open is still doing well in one of the rather niche Amazon charts in which it features. Top twenty - can't argue with that!But I always look to do a blog post on …

I wrote just recently about how I'd accidentally tapped into a nostalgia mine by playing Ride 5, a game that lets you ride modern and classic motorcycles. And whilst it makes sense to me that letting me virtually ride old bikes I've ridden a long time ago might be a cause for fond memories, I was quite surprised by a similar sensation for one of the race tracks modelled in …

Now that we are at the end of 2024, it is time to look back at this year’s material published on Drew Ex Machina and see which of the new essays I posted during this site’s eleventh year online, along with earlier published material, proved to be most popular among my readers. In addition to satisfying my curiosity, this exercise is an attempt to figure out what kinds of articles …

As is traditional, the final Blog post of the year looks back on what we have achieved these past 12 months. Exactly a year ago, I wrote about the challenges of adjusting to the post-Covid world of a slashed volunteer workforce which for us had led to a drop in released carriages after we’d reverted to more thorough works, which contrasted with the 2022 quick refresh policy that had to …

I was recently taken aback by fellow blogger and friend Bruce's (from The Online Darkroom) reaction to a photograph that has been knocking about since about 1978. How can I date it so definitively? Well The Jam's Down In The Tube Station At Midnight came out in October 1978 and I seem to remember getting so fired up after seeing them on top Of The Pops (it is a great …