Waffle

Why didn't anybody tell me that today was Drs. P's 85th birthday? Belated congratulations to the great Dutch/Swiss songwriter and light versifier. Met jouw verjaardag zijn wij heden blij, knolrapen, lof, schorseneren en prei.

There's something deeply depressing about watching the American electoral process at work, even when you do so from a safe distance, without the dubious benefit of American newspapers, American TV and American hate radio, and even when the candidate who you, for lack of a better word, support, has a fighting chance. Ed Brayton nails why. I'm not going to quote a single word from it here; go there, read the whole thing, then read the whole weblog from the first post to the last (including the posts at Dispatches From The Culture Wars' old location, from which Ed has just moved). It's one of the best blogs out there. Every post is an education.

Update: After posting this, I saw that Ed had followed his post up with Speaking Truth to Power, in which he points out two organisations that help separate spin from sooth:

After the last entry, I feel like I should at least point out the few people who actually are making an effort to find the truth about statements made by the politicians. There are two websites that come immediately to mind, both of which I link to under news sources on my sidebar - Spinsanity and FactCheck.Org. Both sites are non-partisan and both of them take the ads and pronouncements and talking points of the two major party candidates and check them for accuracy.

Wow. I really should go dumpster diving some time:

Many times records in the trash belong in the trash—they’re scratched so badly it would be impossible to listen to them. Other times, though, they’re salvageable (just a bit dirty and easily washed, or not in as bad as they look). Judging the condition of records and how salvageable they are is something I could write a whole other essay on. I’ll just say that things are not always as they seem, but with experience one can learn what’s really OK and what’s beyond redemption. Still other times, records are in virtually mint condition, but are not the genre or format that is readily saleable by the person who until recently had them. Typical situation: an old person dies, and their heirs have no interest in the deceased’s music. Thus, one often finds such things as cantorial records, easy listening, big band jazz, ’50s pop vocalists, the Harmonica Rascals, Jerry Vale, and schmaltzy Christmas music in the city’s trash. Much of this is of no particular interest to me, but there is plenty of interesting listening to be culled from it, including lots of what would now be called Space Age Pop. (Easy-listening versions of hard-rock hits of the ’60s are a particular fave of mine.) Classical music is by far the most common thing to find in large quantities, and it’s often in tip-top shape. I daresay that if I started from scratch today, I could have a large and varied collection of classical LPs in less than a year’s time at absolutely no cost. A few weeks ago, for example, I took home about 100 more or less mint classical LPs, many of them on Deutsche Grammophon; I had to make two trips from the Dumpster.

[...]
And then there are 78s, which most people don’t have the machinery to play.
[...]
The trash has yielded a number of outstanding finds. (Just how, where, when, and why piles of 78s, as well as LP records, 45s, and even CDs, end up in the trash, is something I must keep to myself--but know that they do.) Last winter I actually had to hail a cab, even though I was only a few blocks from home, in order to carry home the stack of 78s I found (book after book of near-mint Artie Shaw records, as well as Mel Torme, 1950s mariachi bands, some other odd Latin stuff, etc.—the fact that they were in such great shape had a lot to do with my taking them). And the other night I found another great stash. This one is mostly jazz—much of it by well-known artists such as Count Basie, Lester Young, and Coleman Hawkins, and some fine work by them indeed. And while I’m certainly glad to have copies of such classics as “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)” by Roy Hamilton (Epic), “Caldonia” by Louis Jordan (Decca), and “Santa Baby” by Eartha Kitt (RCA Victor), once again it’s the oddball stuff that captures my fancy.

And I just might find a nice deskchair there as well. Or some original H.G. Kresse pages.

(Via Electrolite's sidebar.)

Hi! I'm Reinder Dijkhuis, and I'm a cafeinist. I'm trying to quit, but I fell off the wagon a few times during the weekend. I've been dry since Sunday evening though.

Seriously, my aim isn't to quit drinking coffee altogether, but rather to be able to do without it on most days, so I'm not that bothered by having a cup during Saturday's cycling or on social occasions. However, it does slow down the withdrawal process, so now I've got less severe withdrawal symptoms, but they last longer. I'm able to work, though, and in fact I'm producing comics at my prior rate of one a day again.

I've been reading up on caffeine withdrawal at the FAQs.org caffeine FAQ, which I really should have done before quitting. They recommend a slow cutdown, and warn that withdrawal symptoms can get quite nasty if you quit cold turkey:

Regular caffeine consumption reduces sensitivity to caffeine. When
caffeine intake is reduced, the body becomes oversensitive to
adenosine. In response to this oversensitiveness, blood pressure drops
dramatically, causing an excess of blood in the head (though not
necessarily on the brain), leading to a headache.

This headache, well known among coffee drinkers, usually lasts from
one to five days, and can be alleviated with analgesics such as
aspirin. It is also alleviated with caffeine intake (in fact several
analgesics contain caffeine dosages).

Often, people who are reducing caffeine intake report being irritable,
unable to work, nervous, restless, and feeling sleepy, as well as
having a headache. In extreme cases, nausea and vomiting has also been
reported.

(more...)

Saturday started out a bit on the rainy side, and there was some doubt whether we should actually go. But go we did, Sidsel and me, because we are tough! We both needed a ride, anyway; otherwise we'd have sort of sunk into lethargy, either because of the caffeine withdrawal or simply because it looked like being that sort of a day.
We set out for Eastermar, Fryslân, on 11.30. As you may recall, we had tried to go to Eastermar before, to visit Sidsel's aunt and uncle who have recently moved there. That time, we didn't find it, and in any case Sidsel's relatives weren't home as we found out halfway through, but this time we were better prepared, and found both the lost town of Eastermar and the relatives.

(more...)

Stephen Crowley of Magellan (no link pending address change) just announced that he is moving the comic to Graphic Smash! Congratulations Stephen!

Now, let me draw the reader's attention to the list of comics links on the Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan front page, where a link to Magellan was added just a week ago. As you may know, the link list has been a very good predictor of which comics are moving up in the world. But it gets better: before including the comic in the link list, I wrote this:

I've known Stephen, the artist, online for some time, and I'm glad to see that having the comic on Keenspace has revitalised it and brought it many new readers! He has another comic, Magellan, on there as well now, which I recommend the Graphic Smash people to look into because the combination of superheroes and a European-inspired clear-line style is very appealing and the writing is really strong.

God, I'm good.

Girl!
I wanna take you to a gay bar,
I wanna take you to a gay bar,
I wanna take you to a gay bar, gay bar, gay bar.

You're a superstar, at the gay bar.
You're a superstar, at the gay bar.
Yeah! you're a superstar, at the gay bar.
You're a superstar, at the gay bar.
Superstar.
Super, super, superstar

Right! You're MTV. Did you just hear anything you want to censor? But ofcourse:
Let's start a war, start a nuclear war...(the word war made inaudible)
*sigh* I have no words for this... How stupid does it get?

(Lyrics: "Gay bar" - Electric Six)

Quitting coffee is no fun at all. Even though in recent years I'd cut down to four large cups a day, (from 12 in the early 90s), going from those four to zero has been hell. I spent yesterday evening in bed trying to find a position to lie down in in which my head didn't feel like every brain cell was being ripped apart.

On the other hand, I felt well enough in the morning to go for a little run. Like I mentioned early in June, a knee problem prevents me from doing serious running, but today I got a bit further than the last time. We're still talking about distances in the hundreds of meters rather than kilometers, but doing as much as that without the knee bothering me at all is progress. It must be because the cycling has made me stronger.

Work-wise, the withdrawal is making it very hard for me to do anything, but a Floor script has been mailed out, 8 pages of Courtly Manners 2 are now colored (but not lettered), and the buffer for ROCR is not empty just yet. My holiday plans aren't looking too good right now. I still intend to go to Norway, but it will probably have to wait until September.

Trying to figure out which factors contributed to my lack of mental focus in the past couple of weeks, culminating in my bout of writer's block (which I now think I'm over, but who knows), I've decided to quit drinking coffee for a while. It hasn't done me much tangible good in recent years: I need two stiff cups in the morning just to function as a normal human being; the effect wears out after an hour or so leaving me feeling like my mind is a haze; and both withdrawal and drinking too much of it give me nasty headaches. It's an endless chemical balancing act.

Because I already had a headache anyway, I decided to skip coffee in the morning, and will do without it for as long as I can. So far, it's not that bad; the only effect (apart from the headache which is actually subsiding now) is a strong desire to crawl back into bed. But I might get a bit crabby in the next few days.

I'm not one to "ooh" and "aah" each time a see a cuddly toy. My bed is devoid of bunnies, tiggers and/or bears.
But these cre'atures are different! Down Under comic artist Timmeryn, creator of the Pantheon has in the past already shown to be able to bring life to comic characters with >papier mach?. Not very cuddly and most likely annoying to sleep with...
Not so these lovable Rahballs, Fuzzyballs, Dragonballs, Wolfballs and Wee Tiny Balls! I've instantly fallen in love with these little fellows, and would like to add how refreshing it is to see toys, not made and manufactured in horrible sweatshops! Cuddles made with tlc! How rare it seems in these industrial times.
As much as I hate advertising, I do have to say: "Buy one! You know you want one! Support your artists!"