Dear Readers

I hope you are well.
How was your Valentines Day, by the way ?
Good, bad, meh ?
Mine was spent in a hospital where a close relative was in the final stages of a long, tough battle with cancer, so forgive me if this post seems a little more downbeat than usual.

The world is in a state of flux at the moment and it's both terrifying and rewarding to be here at this time. With political upheavals and the recession chomping at our heels, it would be impossible to ignore the future direction of things.

There is a growing resentment at the increasing monopolisation of the markets - certainly online, (Facebook is bigger than Coca - Cola now) and the failure of the new internet model (not so new now, after 25 years) to make us all idle rich.
Short term profit = long term loss, I often say in my simplification of the politics of greed that still haunt us.
Of course the emerging new model is to engage with online society, perhaps open an Etsy page, make a killing on e-bay or sell music or book downloads ; and I love to see people creating and hawking their wares in this global marketplace-
I'd love to buy more and show support - but, hey - I don't participate in WoW or MMOs where real money is exchanged for virtual goods, so how about virtual money for real goods?
Or is that the Bitcoin world ?
Or do we need a whole new system of barter ?
Or just answers to these endless questions ?

 Is it the 1% who are hoovering up more and more of the Earths finite resources and wealth ?
Or is the renewed vigour of the space race merely a distraction from the death rattle of a society based on selfishness and greed ?

... hey, guys! At least there's always Mars! We can start again! Come on !
...guys ?
A lone explorer, standing atop a sea of skulls bleached white by a boiling hot sun and stretching as far as the eye can see.

It's a horrific vision, but the scariest thing is the sense of inevitability and shoulder - shrugging that seems to go on.
And so, in the spirit of cynicism of this blog, I present a link to a free pdf download of poetry allegedly written by the head of one of the biggest interweb ventures :  Relentless by Jeff Bezos

An example: "After Vito Conchita"
 BUY THIS WORD THEN BUY THIS WORD NEXT BUY THIS WORD

NOW ONE-CLICK ONE BUY ONE-CLICK ONE BUY NEXT ONE-CLICK

ONE BUY NOW AND THEN ONE-CLICK ONE BUY AGAIN REVIEW

THREE WORDS NOW REVIEW THREE WORDS NOW TOO

CUSTOMERS INTERESTED IN FIVE WORDS WERE ALSO

INTERESTED IN SIX WORDS NOW BUY IT NOW REVIEW THESE

Kindergarten Konspiracy

I am pleased to see regular readers here on my humble blog. It's a constant source of fascination to watch the statistics change on a daily basis - that may sound facetious but I mean it - I find it amazing that people across the globe (well, Tooting ), can tune into my aimless rambling.
I humbly thank you all- both !
Now back to the business of undermining the inhumane regime ...
Just joking! I just wanted to throw in a couple of buzzwords to enhance my readership with government watchdogs!

Attribute unknown (perpetrator chose not to be identified)

(Removes  tin - foil helmet, combs hair, adjusts tie, adopts 'serious' expression and faces camera 1.)

In news just in, we wonder why people insist :

"If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear".

That is a knee - jerk response to the continued, ongoing, unjustified erosion of personal rights.
What began as a 'security measure' conveniently hiding behind a threat labelled 'Terrorism' and 'National Security', is now a corporate smörgasbord, with our personal likes and wants offered for sale to the lowest bidder, and on a darker level, certain words and phrases in our online searches bringing us to the attention of agencies of government.
So far so good, we're being monitored for security reasons.
Except it doesn't stop there.

Here in the UK the tabloid media is constantly crying 'wolf ' - the dangers of online chatrooms , the nasty men on Pirate Bay - and don't even mention the foul perverts and junkies using Tor.
Remove the sense of righteous indignation however, and what would the next target be ?
After all, the scaremongering tabloids must have an enemy in their midst - otherwise no-one would believe their deceptions and lies - God forbid, people might educate themselves and then where would we be ?
The noise reaches the ears of the lawmakers who promptly legislate new 'safety measures' into online interactions -
'think of the children' is a popular cry, guaranteed to result in wholesale agreement to most new measures.

So hurrah for those fighting for Net Neutrality* and online freedoms.
And yes, that includes those who work to improve open source software that stands free of commercial influence.

On the other hand, I'm writing this blog on Google, right in the belly of the beast.
Best place really.
Nothing to hide, you see.

So there you go - in one fell swoop I've defused my own argument.
The reason is that I don't want to cry 'wolf ' myself.
I could paste links to surveillance news and oppressive governments all over this piece, but that's not my reason for doing this.

I just want to perhaps stimulate the odd thought, and re-ignite the realisation that the internet is controlled by and open to all people.

That's why I'm here, doing this.
Because I can.

The internet is not , and never should be driven by commercial interests. 


* Update : Feb 26 2015, the FCC approves Net Neutrality, so well done to friends in the U.S.A.!
(and bad luck to the greedy corporates )

Tall Trees

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
Said someone, once.
The title of this post is 'Tall Trees', as in 'Tall trees from tiny acorns grow'; another saying which I probably mis-heard. Anyway, I was going to be more succinct, calling the blog 'Acorn', but I decided that too many people might mistakenly think this was a blog centred on retro adoration of a classic computer. But then I'd have to deal with the cult of Apple and its adherents, all clamouring for the latest  iphone.
And that could lead to much anguish.
So I didn't go with Acorn.
But here's a picture of one.

One of my problems is overthinking; if it wasn't, then this blog would have been launched long ago.

But the constant striving for perfection often results in nothing ; because it's easier, and safer not to do anything, for fear of messing up.

Someone else once said that you miss 100% of the shots you never take.

I can understand that.

So in this rambling stream of consciousness, I hope to find some semblance of logic and achievement. If that can be attained without too much Psychobabble, then praise be, and all that.

Because one thing I can't stand is Psychobabble.

But I digress.

Perhaps I should start again.

Hello

My name is Gordon.

That's not working for me, either.
So here is a cover I drew long ago.






'Inkhead'* was a self-published comic / graphic thingy which had a puny global reach of 200 copies.

It was lovingly hand assembled before there was a Google. Actually, there was barely even an internet to speak of  (it was 1989); in some ways that was a pity, as we could have gone digital and saved a lot of headaches in printing and distribution.

A few of my drawings from Inkhead

As it was, the whole thing was buoyed up by boundless enthusiasm ( mostly from our irrepressible mentor Leo, bless 'im wherever he be) , and a great admiration for the world of diy zines and indie comics. I was obsessed with the whole thing, and for a spell in the 1980's worked for one of only two comic distributors in the UK, so had plenty of experience hands on with the likes of alternative titles such as RAW,WEIRDO, BLAB! and reprints of ZAP, as well as the classic E.C. comics . Infact,my love of horror/ sci-fi and comics in general stemmed from a repressed childhood in the Scottish lowlands, in which the discovery of such adult fare was an illicit thrill.
'Inkhead' was a low (no) budget thing which lived and died in obscure corners of bookshops and comic shops in the UK.
 Distribution was hopelessly sporadic, relying on foot slogging, and cheeky sale or return requests.
 I think our highest profile was twenty copies in Waterstones; which for our humble little  Leicester Community-Press  creation, was the nadir of bookishness.
 Infact the manager probably took pity on us little orphans, with our hand scrawled comix.
It was 84 pages of offset litho, and we were proud of the little monster. So much so, that we created issue 2, and that's where the trail went dead.

'Ghettoman' was a character I created as a wannabe superhero in 1989...

We moved away; the motley crew who'd contributed scribbles and collages to Inkhead were scattered far and wide, and the printers were the victims of a growing recession.
In fact, I don't really know why I've gotten so indepth about it here, except that it's an example of the low scale indie creativity that drives me.

Top right links to the next blog in this series, further opening out my aimless, rambling persona.

* I actually Googled 'Inkhead' tonight, and it turned up quite a few ( mostly print companies). So, yeah, I guess we missed out on the Domain there; though it wasn't even a consideration in 1989.