On Soup, Steadman and Skills

Monday and a post of a few odds and one barely functioning sod. It's noon and I fear that somebody spiked my coffee with a sedative. The caffeine has still not kicked in. I blame the weather. After a few days spent enjoying some early spring weather, the skies have turned an underpant grey. It's also cold which makes my blood run like soup.

However, trying to rouse myself: I have a new cartoon over at Tim Marshall's new blog, The What and the Why, and a new cartoon here today if I can shake life into myself and get it finished. Or perhaps not if I finish it and like it enough to include in today's magazine submissions. I've been spending a few days trying to collect together all the stray cartoons I've drawn. I have another batch ready to send out.

I was chuffed this morning to see that one of the rare Ralph Steadman newsletters had landed in my inbox. The master is finishing another book of 'boids', which I have to admit, isn't really my cup of tea. As much as I love simply everything that Steadman does, his 'boids' have never really floated my boat. I never bought the first book and I don't see myself buying the second. I think it's really the subject matter. I love Steadman's human figures, those wide eyed loons and tendril fingered deviants. Birds, to me, are just splashes of paint and a step too far into the world of the abstract. It's why I'm pinning my hopes on the news that he's working on a new book called 'The Book of Clever Bastards'. The title sounds promising. I just hope the clever bastards are human clever bastards and not a book about devious plants or ingenious insects.

I had a strange weekend. One of the unlooked-for advantages of honing my programming skills is that my new programming skills can be used for odd jobs. A close friend had a problem uploading data to a website because the data she had was in the wrong format. I said I might be able to help, thinking I could write a little bit of code to input the bad XML and output good XML. It took me about an hour but result worked and my friend was so happy the she had me quickly balloon the app with features. I now face a day when I'll be adding more. Did I say programming was an advantage? Not sure it is. It's the story of my life. All I ever want to do is draw and write and the only thing that life wants out of me is cold rational code.