Bleh

not a great night sleep. Had metaphorical dreams of clearing my chest – wiping data from a computer that I did not want – appropriate enough for my foolish computer addled brain. Tidied up our/to be the kids bedroom yesterday. Took all to hyuge boxes of books & records upstairs again. Was surprised that I could actually lift a couple of them! We weeded through a couple of boxes as well – disposing of books that we will never be reading, & do not really want gracing any shelves that we may have in the future. Three bags & a small box full to go to the ‘book bin’ at the recycling point in town (for Oxfam).

Anyway – all the shifting & opening of books generated the sort of dust that really gets to me, & thus I have ‘tight lungs’; just a bit of a phlegmy cough – the sort of thing that does not help sleep. Still, I don’t feel too bad this morning, that considered. I really must not stay up too late tonight or I will really start to turn into a zombie. Still a lot more sorting out to do! I rather hope that we can get some bookshelves for downstairs, it would be good to have the sort of thing again. The records tough… eep – what are we going to do with those long term? The do make excellent ballast for a bottom shelf (making a free standing unit very stable.

Jack was all keen to help, & Eve enjoyed pottering about, but I was left on my own in the end to tidy things up. Jack later burst into tears when he realised I’d done this as he was evidently been expecting to help. Louise went round ‘our/to be the kids’ room later & hoovered & so on, so it now looks… unnaturally tidy! Weird. I guess that’s what we are supposed to aspire to though. Perhaps when the walls are one uniform colour & not half wallpapered & half green washed old plaster with many patches of polyfiller… Be nice if we can stretch to a new carpet in there as well, but I feel that may be pushing it a bit.

Read James Kolchaka’s Diary strips the over the weekend. Finished it over my morning breakfast. It’s an intriguing thing. I’ve read a few diary comics (John Welding’s Goathland & Jim Cameron’s ‘ision’ series) but this is in the form of a 4 panel strip. It must have occurred to him at some point that this could be ‘sellable’ to a ‘daily’ paper. Having said that I may be being over cruel in my thinking on his motivation. It may have started with no real intention of being used in that way… Means must at times. Whatever, the whole concept intrigues me. I keep this text as a form of diary, & the limitations are frustrating, but they are usually due to my Lousy memory & inability to capture those tiny moments of life that are so interesting. It makes me think that drawing a 4 panel cartoon in this was would be a good discipline, but I have so little time to do what I want in the 1st place, that this seems a foolish ambition. It makes me think that I should at least try to illustrate, in whatever way, my daily ramblings.

What has James achieved in his comic? Well, I would recommend it as a comic to another comic creator, but I have misgivings as to how Joe Public would approach such an item. James snatches little moments in time, & they range across many little facets of life… love frustration & the occasional bit of crabby joy. Reading an individual strip would only make you feel as though nothing was happening, but a collection like this, or a daily drip feed, I think would soon have people hooked (even a great many of Joe Public). People, I guess are inherently nosey, & this, you could amply theorise, is just another block in the ‘Big Brother’ syndrome (as we is all big brother now). It’s kinda sweet, & I like the way he draws – always have.