Friday, November 18, 2005
People have bin asking where my new blog is. It can be found at http://ronandodds.blogspot.com
I may, some day, get round to adding it as a link on the sidebar here. Please send me url's for your own blogs, and I'll add them here.
I may, some day, get round to adding it as a link on the sidebar here. Please send me url's for your own blogs, and I'll add them here.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Wow
Big Wow!
I posted this picture of Fiona Bruce, entitled Remembrance Day, which I created using photoshop a while back, and thought nothing more of it, until hitting Google Image Search for some more pictures of Fifi to doctor. Much to my utter glee, the second result was this picture!!!
It's fitting that it is fast approaching remembrance day, Nov 11th. I was thinking of mebbes doing something with it to mark the occassion.
Big Wow!
I posted this picture of Fiona Bruce, entitled Remembrance Day, which I created using photoshop a while back, and thought nothing more of it, until hitting Google Image Search for some more pictures of Fifi to doctor. Much to my utter glee, the second result was this picture!!!
It's fitting that it is fast approaching remembrance day, Nov 11th. I was thinking of mebbes doing something with it to mark the occassion.
Friday, September 23, 2005
I've been pretty fascinated to watch the coverage of the New Orleans disaster over the last few weeks. When the hurricane first hit, it was, like, 'meh! just another storm in the USA', and then the news reports continued, basically showing a city slowly drowning and dying - broadcast livethe world over. As it went on, it just turned into a sicker and sicker joke. Today, I found this article which reports mercenary groups that have been operating in Iraq who are now deployed on the streets of New Orleans to keep order.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
monkachu
lemming
wot it says
"The BNP? I don't have a problem with them: I'm White."
santised for your protection
cute!
three wise gods? i dunno
the captain's fishtank
or, rather: hitman, sketch
hitman, sketch
me, Heaton park
uwillb3tasimulated
a motortrike, tynemouth
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Have some special Seasons Greetings
this is something i call Fiona Bruce: Remembrance Day
and this is cropped to make a damn good desktop wallpaper
this is something i call Fiona Bruce: Remembrance Day
and this is cropped to make a damn good desktop wallpaper
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/nintendogs.php
if they can do it with dogs, they can do it with 8 year old boys
if they can do it with dogs, they can do it with 8 year old boys
This 1941 story from the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry appealled to my sick sense of humour. You gotta love the language that these psychiatrists use. This is from an article called 'The Effect of Comic Books on the Ideology of Children' by Bender, L. and Lourie, R.:
Kenneth, age 11, came to the hospital with a background of life-long rejection, first by his unstable mother and alcoholic father who separated when he was 4, then in an unsupervised foster home and, finally, by his mother again when he was returned to her at a time when she was most unwilling to have him. His admission resulted from an unusually severe reaction after a homosexual experience forced on him by an adult, causing him to function on a defective level, mentally and socially, though his endowment was average. On the ward he was extremely unstable emotionally, at times overactive, and at others terrified and clinging to adults. He believed he would die in five years as a result of the assault on him because his rectum was filled with poison, and he was in constant danger of attack from the other boys on the ward and from adults.
Treatment in the form of psychotherapy, sedative medication, socializing therapy, group activities, hydrotherapy, etc., provoked a very slow response. He had, however, one relatively quiet, relaxed period in the hospital during which he insisted on wearing a Superman cape. He used his special robe as an excuse for not following routines and remaining with the girls' group. He boasted to the other patients, the nurses and doctors that he could leave the ward anytime by flying through the walls. Questioning revealed a feeling that at times he might even be better than Superman.
Through Superman this boy found a means of temporary release from his own fears and preoccupations. In his identification with this character who could never be harmed, he achieved a feeling of security which nothing else that was tried had succeeded in doing. In addition, he felt that the cape protected him from assault in the rear. At the same time it gave him an excuse to wear a garb which would more readily admit him to the sanctuary of the girls' group within which he felt safer. Another feature in the comics which struck a responsive chord in Kenneth was their hypomanic tempo, matching in many respects his own hyperkinesis.
Kenneth, age 11, came to the hospital with a background of life-long rejection, first by his unstable mother and alcoholic father who separated when he was 4, then in an unsupervised foster home and, finally, by his mother again when he was returned to her at a time when she was most unwilling to have him. His admission resulted from an unusually severe reaction after a homosexual experience forced on him by an adult, causing him to function on a defective level, mentally and socially, though his endowment was average. On the ward he was extremely unstable emotionally, at times overactive, and at others terrified and clinging to adults. He believed he would die in five years as a result of the assault on him because his rectum was filled with poison, and he was in constant danger of attack from the other boys on the ward and from adults.
Treatment in the form of psychotherapy, sedative medication, socializing therapy, group activities, hydrotherapy, etc., provoked a very slow response. He had, however, one relatively quiet, relaxed period in the hospital during which he insisted on wearing a Superman cape. He used his special robe as an excuse for not following routines and remaining with the girls' group. He boasted to the other patients, the nurses and doctors that he could leave the ward anytime by flying through the walls. Questioning revealed a feeling that at times he might even be better than Superman.
Through Superman this boy found a means of temporary release from his own fears and preoccupations. In his identification with this character who could never be harmed, he achieved a feeling of security which nothing else that was tried had succeeded in doing. In addition, he felt that the cape protected him from assault in the rear. At the same time it gave him an excuse to wear a garb which would more readily admit him to the sanctuary of the girls' group within which he felt safer. Another feature in the comics which struck a responsive chord in Kenneth was their hypomanic tempo, matching in many respects his own hyperkinesis.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
That ant colony never happened, in case anyone out there is wondering...last i looked, the fruit we left for them had gone mouldy and the soil just looked far too arid. Back to farming words, then...
My mate Jack, who i never see these days but MSN to a fair bit, has recently started up a blog, found at http://seemedlikeagoodidea.blogspot.com/ . Once again, this (and a munkie from Mohammed saying "Give us a new frikin' blog you lazy monkey! What do we pay you for!!") has spurred me into action, and here i am banging at the qwerty pads just cos i can. So, what do I have to report? Well, I should really be spending this time reading Elizabeth Gaskell's 'North and South', which I am rather enjoying despite myself (churning out words i am fine at, cramming them into my eyeballs i am not so good with). I finished reading John Milton's Samson Agonistes this morning, following an outing to the town moor which met with only moderate success (you know what I'm talking about). I've also finished reading Paradise Lost over the last few days, a book which I've been chewing on for about 2 years (till i discovered i could get through it faster by reading). I have to do an essay on Gaskell and one on Milton, due around the 17 Nov., which isnt far away, so I am plunging into study mode, after paddling perhaps waist deep since the start of term. I've also been doing a lot of work on my dissertation, which has changed drastically since the last time i blogged about it (but it is still about comics). Now, it is going to be along the lines of 'masculinity in comic books'. So far, ideas wise, i am thinking of writing a section on masks in The Watchmen, drawing on some of Scott McCloud's theory (Chapter 2 of Understanding Comics, just in case any of you are familiar with it). I hope to have some sort of draft for this done by the end of the week, before i go back to uni (i am on a reading week, and for once i am actually reading!). I also intend to draw up a CeeVee, but have been putting that off ever since seeing one of the careers advisors at the start of the year. The idea of a career (or even a job) makes me shit bricks.
and relax
other stuff: i have a warm and glowy feeling inside after helping Mo do battle with (read: grovel to) the Home Office to get his wife thru customs. Becky and I helped him with writing up an appeal after he botched up the initial application. A famous saying in Iran is 'It's in my hand, but it's not my fault', and in his appeal Mo wanted to blame his solicitors for the crappiness of the original application (they *did* give him really bad advice - Mo: give me their name and we'll give them some bad publicity, eh?). Anyway, Becky and I put him right, helped him make the necessary changes to make it obsequious enough for the Home Office to be able to change their decision without admitting they were wrong, then stamped it with our offical 'Now With More Added English' stamp. Much to our relief, (phew!) they did change their decision.
The Graphic Novel Reading Group has also been meeting fortnightly, and there's a homepage up on the Newcastle Central Library website, which is gradually gaining content; a lot of it mine, as I am supposed to be building up a portfolio of writing examples and stuff. I feel a bit daft cos i've been forgetting to tell Denis about the meetings, even, as he pointed out to me the other night, to the point of seeing him on the day of the meeting, then not telling him it was on, even as i was getting up to go to it. It only occurred to me that i should have told him once i got to the meeting...i really should think of a good excuse for that one. But i remembered to tell him this week!
Leave munkies! Write blogs! Lets make the blogverse interesting again, even if we have to lie!
My mate Jack, who i never see these days but MSN to a fair bit, has recently started up a blog, found at http://seemedlikeagoodidea.blogspot.com/ . Once again, this (and a munkie from Mohammed saying "Give us a new frikin' blog you lazy monkey! What do we pay you for!!") has spurred me into action, and here i am banging at the qwerty pads just cos i can. So, what do I have to report? Well, I should really be spending this time reading Elizabeth Gaskell's 'North and South', which I am rather enjoying despite myself (churning out words i am fine at, cramming them into my eyeballs i am not so good with). I finished reading John Milton's Samson Agonistes this morning, following an outing to the town moor which met with only moderate success (you know what I'm talking about). I've also finished reading Paradise Lost over the last few days, a book which I've been chewing on for about 2 years (till i discovered i could get through it faster by reading). I have to do an essay on Gaskell and one on Milton, due around the 17 Nov., which isnt far away, so I am plunging into study mode, after paddling perhaps waist deep since the start of term. I've also been doing a lot of work on my dissertation, which has changed drastically since the last time i blogged about it (but it is still about comics). Now, it is going to be along the lines of 'masculinity in comic books'. So far, ideas wise, i am thinking of writing a section on masks in The Watchmen, drawing on some of Scott McCloud's theory (Chapter 2 of Understanding Comics, just in case any of you are familiar with it). I hope to have some sort of draft for this done by the end of the week, before i go back to uni (i am on a reading week, and for once i am actually reading!). I also intend to draw up a CeeVee, but have been putting that off ever since seeing one of the careers advisors at the start of the year. The idea of a career (or even a job) makes me shit bricks.
and relax
other stuff: i have a warm and glowy feeling inside after helping Mo do battle with (read: grovel to) the Home Office to get his wife thru customs. Becky and I helped him with writing up an appeal after he botched up the initial application. A famous saying in Iran is 'It's in my hand, but it's not my fault', and in his appeal Mo wanted to blame his solicitors for the crappiness of the original application (they *did* give him really bad advice - Mo: give me their name and we'll give them some bad publicity, eh?). Anyway, Becky and I put him right, helped him make the necessary changes to make it obsequious enough for the Home Office to be able to change their decision without admitting they were wrong, then stamped it with our offical 'Now With More Added English' stamp. Much to our relief, (phew!) they did change their decision.
The Graphic Novel Reading Group has also been meeting fortnightly, and there's a homepage up on the Newcastle Central Library website, which is gradually gaining content; a lot of it mine, as I am supposed to be building up a portfolio of writing examples and stuff. I feel a bit daft cos i've been forgetting to tell Denis about the meetings, even, as he pointed out to me the other night, to the point of seeing him on the day of the meeting, then not telling him it was on, even as i was getting up to go to it. It only occurred to me that i should have told him once i got to the meeting...i really should think of a good excuse for that one. But i remembered to tell him this week!
Leave munkies! Write blogs! Lets make the blogverse interesting again, even if we have to lie!
