It’s been a pretty grim week. I’ll not go into details, but, Annette’s brother, Frank, died on Thursday - a tragic death that followed around six months from his girlfriend’s death. Today would have been his birthday, and tomorrows is Annette’s. Needless to say, there isn’t going to be a great deal of birthday party spirit.
Anyway, that’s all I’ll say, and I’ll try and post something a little more life-affirming in due course.
What a weekend !
This weekend we all came down with the lurgy, me, Nathan (3), Annette and Thomas (4mths). Nathan was first. Throwing up everywhere. Ill all day. Then Annette. Throwing up and confined to bed. Thomas seemed to be a little ill but not so bad, then I got it, started in the early hours of the morning and went on all day - I didn’t throw up (I rarely do) but definitely not well.
So now, a few days later, Thomas is STILL throwing up and taking very little food (this is horrible) and, this morning, Nathan woke up in screeching agony - he seems to have gotten a urinary tract infection (unrelated, as far as I can tell, to the other illness). Yesterday we took Thomas to the children’s hospital and today I spent all day up there with Nathan - this is, easily, the worst thing about having kids. It’s tough to look a three year old in the eye and tell him that he has to pee - ‘do you promise it won’t hurt, daddy?’ - ‘uhm… I wish I could mate… I wish I could.’
So, not a great deal of fun in our house. The horrible thing is, nobody is over this stuff yet - Annette and I still feel a little under the weather from the weekend lurgy, but Thomas is still really bad (though he seems to have perked up today, but he’s still upchucking almost everything he’s fed) and Nathan has a course of antibiotics to get through that’ll take a week to complete. And, all the while, he’s scared to pee.
Still, when they brighten up, they’re great - just be warned - listening to a three year old scream ‘Daddy I want to see the Doctor - is it my turn yet’ while in obvious excruciating pain is bloody difficult to get through even with a stiff upper lip.
It’s JERRY PARIS! Jerry Paris, when I was a teenager was my only link to comics via C&VG - and his strip Bug Hunters (and, later, Left. Laww - iirc).
S’brilliant…
Well, actually, I haven’t. I am a model citizen in every possible way. Whiter than white. So much so, in fact, that I drive relatives and friends mad with just how meticulously honest I am. It’s bordering on the obsessive compulsive.
I’ve only ever had a couple of run-ins with the law, once when I was about six and crossed a big road. The police escorted me home. I’m still living with that shame.
Occasionally when I worked in Botanic Ave, if you walk past their often enough, eventually, the police will ask you to take part in a line up. I think I did two, though was asked to do many more.
I slow down when I see police. Even when I’m under the limit (and if I ever go over the limit it’d almost certainly be oversight more than deliberate attempt to flaunt the limits). I’ve NEVER answered my phone while driving (unless I’m stopped in traffic and, very brusquely, I’ll say ‘I’m on the phone I’ll call you back’.
Today though… oh god. The shame…
After a long day, got into Belfast, stopped at the lights, whipped out the iPhone to check if there was any mail. I was stopped. I may even have engaged my handbrake. But I was certainly not moving. One second later, the big cop car that had pulled up right beside me, tapped the window and asked me to pull over.
Fair enough.
Oh bugger. It’s cus I was using the iPhone.
‘Excuse me sir, do you know why I’ve pulled you over’
‘I assume it’s because I was looking at my phone - though the car was stopped at a light, I wasn’t actually moving’.
‘Can i see the device sir’
‘Yeah, here you go’
‘And can you make or receive phone calls’
‘I can, but I was checking if I’d received email - while I was stopped at the lights’
‘Are you aware sir, that any device that can be used for texting while driving is an offense’
‘Yes, I was stopped’
‘Well, sir, that’s splitting hairs - you and I could split hairs all day or we could leave it for a judge to decide’ (I felt that was unnecessarily harsh, myself).
‘Well, fair enough - I thought since the car was stopped, I was simply checking if I’d received anything’
‘Just a minute sir’
(He walks away) (comes back - I don’t think he knows what an iPhone is).
‘Right sir, you’re very lucky, especially with kids in the car - you can go on’
‘Right… uhm… cheers. Don’t worry it won’t happen again’ (And it really won’t… the guilt would be too much to handle)
And that’s it. No charge, on you go - I suspect, though I could be wrong, that the law is CLEAR about texting and driving, but hazy about being stopped at a red light and reading something that has text but isn’t texting - or it could be cus the kids were in the car and Thomas was crying to get home. I really hated, hated that whole experience.
Hypergeek.ca has an interview about Creature Feature an new anthology title from Th3rd World Studios, featuring most of the people involved in issue 1 and including some preview art of issue 2 - which includes the strip Imago I did with Leah Moore and John Reppion
In other comic book news, The Phonogram Boys (go, go team Phonogram) being the young Master McKelvie and old man Gillen have posted some preview art for Phonogram: The Singles Club - click on the big image to see another big image, and repeat until you see the entire preview (eventually you’ll come across a page I did). I should finish that. Next week.
Also: tonight and this weekend are BrumCon - or, more accurately, the Birmingham International Comics Show. I’ll see you there, hopefully (and I’ll bring some art to sell…)
Eye Candy #1 Now available for download! The official tiny url for this is:
Please pass it on, it’s a small, goofy little comic/toy for 99cents. We’re not out of the woods yet, but at least we’re in the forest! (does that analogy make sense?)