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Clearing Out – Vertigo and Indies

innerbrat: (comics)
[personal profile] innerbrat
Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 09:22 am

Demon Knights and Supergirl are my biggest piles yet to be claimed. The former in particular surprises me. Paul Cornell! Vandal Savage! Questing for the right for princesses to marry each other!

So the first on this list is technically DC, but it’s not DCU and that’s how I roll:

Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre: Written by Darwyn Cooke, drawn by the amazing Amanda Conner.  An origin story for Laurie Jupiter, about growing up with an ex-superhero for a Mom and breaking out on your own. Obviously relevant to me, as a Black Canary fan. [Deuce]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the end of Season 8, the beginning of Season 9. Also Angel and Faith, which is a season 9 spin off.

Cinderella: Fables are Forever A Fables-universe spy story starring Cinderella and… well, that would be a spoiler.

The Guild – One shot ‘origins’ for the characters of Felicia Day’s web series.

House of Mystery – the last few arcs of Matt Sturges’ fantasy romp. Lots of fun, and definitely a title I miss.

Stumptown: The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case  – The second arc of Greg Rucka’s PI series, so-starring Mim Bracca from Fistful of Rain. Actually, what the hell, I’ll throw in Fistful of Rain in paperback if you want. This is an amazing four-issue story, and contains the best car chase sequence in  comics that I’ve ever seen.

Saucer Country: Paul Cornell’s 14 issue story about an alien abductee (also an hispanic woman) running for president. Conspiracies! Aliens! Politics! This is also great.

This post can also be found at Thagomizer.net. Feel free to join in the conversation wherever you feel most comfortable.

Bean wigwam

juliet: (get an allotment)
[personal profile] juliet
Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 10:36 am

Mirrored from Twisting Vines.

Lousy weather notwithstanding, I am soldiering onwards with planting in the back garden. (And, indeed, some things are even growing.) This week, it was time to establish the new bean wigwam.

First job was to prise up some more paving slabs, as this is an area I haven’t used before. Next, to shove a few bamboo canes firmly into the ground and tie them together. Here it is, modelled by my glamorous and somewhat grubby assistants Leon and Sidney:

Dog and baby 'helping' spread sand around

Paving slabs up, sticks in, lots of sand (underneath which is London clay).

The other beds are all standard raised beds (made from pallets), but this time I haven’t had a chance to build a proper bed. So for now I’m just piling compost around the poles and planting into that. Leon helped me to trowel compost out of the bag and spread it in a circle.

Finally, after Leon was in bed (so I wouldn’t have to hoick him out of the compost heap), I dug a few spadefuls of not-yet-composted material out of the compost heap, and piled that in the middle of the wigwam. (Ideally I’d have done this before setting up the poles, but baby and dog assistance precluded.) The idea is that the beans will surround this pile as it composts down, creating new soil in the middle of the bed. Once the beans are done for the year I can also chop those off at the base, leaving their roots in place to help improve the ground, and pile the rest of the dead bean plants in over the compost to rot down further over the winter. This bed only gets sun during the summer so won’t be in use in winter anyway.

French bean seeds planted around the poles, and I was all done.
Bean wigwam and compost

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The Blood is The Life 23-05-2013

miss_s_b: (Default)
[personal profile] miss_s_b
Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 10:00 am
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Ow my head

rmc28: (BRAINS)
[personal profile] rmc28
Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 09:10 am
( whinge )
Migraine sucks.
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Migraine woe

strangecharm: (Default)
[personal profile] strangecharm
Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 07:52 am
I don't know what's worse: the migraine I knew I'd have on Monday, that was still leaving me feeling kinda shitty Tuesday, rearing its ugly head again yesterday evening, or me getting a whole new one already.

I'm not used to migraines lasting this long (I know they can for other people, but they haven't for me) or appearing this frequently (ditto; usually I get at least a month between them).

Whatever it is, I am lying in bed feeling sorry for myself rather a lot.
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What I Have To Offer, by Benedict Smith

lizw: text reads "so the darkness shall be the light and the stillness the dancing" (east coker)
[personal profile] lizw
Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 06:41 am
On trains in London you are told to mind the gap
And the gap is a gap between people

They do not talk or make eye contact
The solitude is protocol
But at 1 in the morning
If an elderly piss-stinking drunkard gets on
Dribbling, jabbering gibberish
The people will laugh
And smile at each other
They are in this together now

We need the drunkards
And in later life
It is a service
I am happy
To provide

***

That one got me right in the gut, and I don't think it's just because I'm biased. I'm kind of in awe of what he's writing at just 20, and I find myself wondering what he might be doing by the time he's my age. Meanwhile, there's more, and darker, in Dog Tired Eyes, available at Lulu.
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Clearing Out – Marvel Edition

innerbrat: (comics)
[personal profile] innerbrat
Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013 10:28 am

Addemdum to yesterday’s post: I forgot some:

Green Arrow grab bag – pre52 and nu52. [Rob]

Demon Knights – entire nu52 run. if Batwoman is one of the best nu52 titles, this one, created by Paul Cornell, is another one. A sword and sorcery team book, featuring Vandal Savage (as played by BRIAN BLESSED), Etrigan the Demon, Madam Xanadu,  and a host of new characters, including the Horsewoman, Shining Knight (reinvented as a trans man) and Al Jabr. I highly recommend this series!

 

Marvel Time!

(If you were waiting for my Fraction/DeConnick stuff: sorry that’s going somewhere already.)

Daredevil – volume 3. Deceptively light tone from Waid, seems brash and comicy and then turns it on its head with SURPRISE silver age villains are actually REALLY CREEPY, on top of stress from Matt’s Real Life. Whether the character concept of Daredevil appeals to you or not, the book is constantly well written.

Daredevil End of Days  – darker, AU story by Bendis set after Matt’s death, providing a gripping coda to Bendis’ great run on the title.

Punisher – Greg Rucka’s superb run, followed by Punisher: War Zone. An amazing story about a woman whose wedding was destroyed by a mass shooting, arming up and going after revenge. If you like angry women with vendettas, you will love Rachel Alves. Oh, and Frank Castle is in it too.

Fearless Defenders -Misty Knight, Valkyrie, Dani Moonstar and Hippolyta team up to fight mythological bad guys. Marvel’s answer to Birds of Prey is amazing, you guys! This has only just started, so it’s not a huge package. [All going to Kat]

Young Avengers – most (not all, sorry) of Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, along with the new Young Avengers title, which is a fun teen team book with a couple of awesome new characters (Miss America FTW)

Also two issues of Jan ven Meter’s Black Cat mini, but these are #3 and 4 of 4, so I understand if you’re not interested.

This post can also be found at Thagomizer.net. Feel free to join in the conversation wherever you feel most comfortable.

The Blood is The Life 22-05-2013

miss_s_b: (Default)
[personal profile] miss_s_b
Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013 10:00 am
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"all medical problems can be traced back to a spooky-lookin skeleton living inside your body"

rosefox: My belly. (body)
[personal profile] rosefox
Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013 02:03 am
( Health TMI )

In equally annoying health news, I went to an allergist today and described my reactions to perfumes and flavorings. Her conclusion is that I'm essentially getting contact dermatitis on my tongue and throat when I inhale/ingest things I'm sensitive to. I noted that the problem had gotten a lot worse since I started taking the Zoloft; at first I thought it was related to the Zoloft-induced dry mouth, but that side effect has mostly gone away. However, upon Googling "contact dermatitis artificial flavor", I find this note in a case study of a woman who developed an allergic reaction to artificial cinnamon:

Contact allergies are common in the skin but rare in the mouth due to the protective role of saliva against the accumulation of allergens

Welp.

It's true that my mouth is still dry; it's just not dry enough to really bother me most of the time. In addition, the Zoloft continues to cause a bit of acid reflux, which is probably making my throat more sensitive to other irritants. Hooray! Bodies are fun.

Conclusion: once Readercon is over, plus a week to make sure there's no post-Readercon fuckery this year, I'm going to get my doctor and therapist's approval to go off the Zoloft. It's definitely been helpful, but I'm feeling a lot more settled, and most of my anxiety these days is related to--surprise!--being scared of food because I don't know when it's going to make my throat feel like it's swelling up. I keep being glad to have the Zoloft to help me deal with that, but it would be even better to not need to deal with it. In the meantime, lots and lots of peppermint candy (and a search for lemon or other citrus candies that have no artificial flavors or sweeteners, since citrus is naturally mouthwatering), and probably going back to taking Pepcid with the Zoloft.

Also conclusion: the allergist was not entirely useless, but pretty nearly. I mentioned the Zoloft dry mouth and she didn't say "It might be worth taking a closer look at that". She expressed surprise that Claritin appeared to help with the reaction but offered no suggestions for alternatives. Bah.
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It would be a really inconvenient time to develop an aversion to Yorkshire.

strangecharm: (Default)
[personal profile] strangecharm
Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013 12:16 am
The bus was late. I couldn't help but notice on the road in front of me how "BUS" took up the same horizontal space as "STOP" in the next line.

I really couldn't stop.

Millions of buses that were not mine zoomed by. My brain nightmarishly scrutinized the ads on the sides. The typeface in "Comedy" precision-tooled to be just so wacky. The intentionally-cheap-looking comic-book effects on "Amazing Savings."

My baptism of fire in desktop publishing has made me detest colors and letters and my inability to stop noticing them. I close my eyes and see before me boxes of text and pictures to be rearranged. They never line up. The resolution is never right. There's never anything I can do about it.

I was worried I'd end up with an aversion to a lot of things. PDFs. The other day I saw a TV ad for Skipton Building Society and it only reminded me that I still didn't have their ad to put on the back cover. Umbrellas. A particular shade of blue. Yorkshire, just for being a theme of the festival I was promoting. All was misery.

It probably didn't help that when my bus finally arrived it took me to work, where my task today was...help my boss with another desktop publishing project.

But tonight, I went to a pub and ordered some food and thought the best-looking of the beers on offer was one with the word Yorkshire in its name.

A bit too hoppy for me, but it tasted good. It tasted like "maybe I'll go back to being my old self after all."
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Potato Jesus

[syndicated profile] frontlinehackney_feed
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 04:04 pm

Posted by Nathaniel Mathews

http://frontlinehackney.blogspot.com/2013/05/potato-jesus-its-early-on-bus-from_21.html

It’s early on the bus from Haringey to Hackney. Valentine crams on the double-decker with five schoolchildren in uniform and neck-ties, chattering wildly.  Ahead of them is an elderly woman, and ahead of her there are forests of slightly grim faced people headed into work.

The top  floor of the bus is crammed, and people are sidling on the steps,  hoping someone else will get off at the next stop.
   
Someone a few seats back tells us the Lord has arrived. She tells us that only the Holy Word will wash us clean, that God loves us all. “Jesus is a potato” she cries, taking an unexpected tack.  In London fashion we ignore her, but some are a little more askance.  Eyes roll. Then we get to the office.

Zadie's husband  Zak is beating her up.   

Changes in legal aid kicked in last month. Two thirds of cases have had funding withdrawn. Where it remains, the bureaucracy is more complicated.  If Zadie walks into the office bruised and bleeding, she needs all her papers before she can get legal aid to get protection against domestic violence.

The gateway is MARAC, the Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference. A sensible mechanism for the police to meet with the council and local agencies, and do a risk assessment- but something which takes time. Only when she has the right letters can Zadie get legal aid from a family lawyer. In the meantime she is at risk from Zac.

Jump forward six weeks. Armed with a documented high  risk assessment  Zadie  gets an injunction preventing Zac from coming within 100 metres of her.

She also applies homeless to the council. The council tells her that even though she has suffered 10 years of disgusting domestic violence, culminating in a stabbing,  she is not vulnerable- because now that she is away from violent Zak she has nothing to worry about. So the Council will not house her. She will have no choice but to return to Zac after all.

We make representations to the Council, ask for a review of the decision, threaten judicial review. The housing officer agrees to put her in a hostel while her file is looked at again. But before we do this, we have to send Zadie away to get her last three months banks statements.

Today legal aid is still available for homelessness as well as in many cases of domestic violence. If  Zadie's problems make the world seem cynical and uncaring, the new legal aid changes now being proposed are going to make the madness even worse.

Zadie's husband  Zak is beating her up. Zadie is Dutch, and has only been in the UK for six months.

Under new  proposals, unless Zadie has had Home Office papers for a year she can't get legal aid. And so,  Zadie really would have to  go back to the only home she has, with violent Zac, to endure  the same cycle of domestic violence all over again.

The State says that these new measures are necessary to sustain confidence in the legal aid system. It is essential to ensure that the public is not worried about European free-loaders coming over and getting legal aid to do god knows what. Like get protection against domestic violence, legal advice if their landlord tries to evict them through the courts, or with boot-boys and brickbats.

To me, this is a license for domestic violence against women who do not have the right immigration papers, or who do not have them with them because they left them when they fled. It is also a license for unscrupulous landlords. Effectively it strips the rights of anyone whose immigration status is difficult to understand or prove.

The crazy lady on the bus finds consolation in a religion where all are weighed equally. If  justice means anything at all, protection of basic liberties should be provided irrespective of where they are born. Yet arbitrary cuts will make our clients fry like chips.

If this is justice, I'm a potato.







http://frontlinehackney.blogspot.com/2013/05/potato-jesus-its-early-on-bus-from_21.html

Equal Marriage: Five thank yous.

miss_s_b: (Politics: Democracy)
[personal profile] miss_s_b
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 10:57 pm
I don't want to spend any time at all on my local MP, who voted the wrong way every single time, nor on the four Lib Dems who voted the wrong way, nor on those Lib Dems who abstained for whatever reason (some of whom we know are very much in favour of equal marriage but just couldn't make the chamber today, and others of whom are more... suspect). I do want to single out a few MPs, though, not just Lib Dems, who I feel gratitude towards for this getting passed today.

1, Lynne Featherstone - we wouldn't have had the bill at all without Lynne. I am an unashamed fan of hers, and the quiet, efficient way she goes about things, and her unswerving feminism coupled with her unbreakable LGBT ally-ness makes her a big political hero of mine. So thanks, Lynne, for getting the ball rolling on this, and helping to build it to unstoppable momentum.

2, Julian Huppert - has been indefatigable and measured both yesterday and today in making speeches. Was especially impressive today on the trans issues, which sadly did not gain the support of the house. This is something that needs to be pushed again and again until those whose marriages were forced apart by the state can get them back, and Huppmeister J represented today. Thanks Julian.

3, Caroline Lucas - spoke and voted on the right side on LOTS of amendments, and tweeted from the chamber lots to keep people informed. Stayed in there when most of the rest of the MPs had buggered off, and carried on debating and voting all day. Thanks Caroline.

4, Diane Abbott - resisted the urge for party political point-scoring, unlike so many of her colleagues, and just voted the right way, gladly and with grace. Thanks Diane.

5, Greg Mullholland - many people just assumed that Greg would troop through the no lobby with the other... well, I guess you could call them the Usual Suspects. Beith, Pugh, etc. But he actually wrestled with the issues, and came to a conclusion that he felt could be reconciled with his faith and his liberalism. He thought about it, discussed it with various relevant parties, posted his reasoning on his website, and was in every respect an exemplary Liberal MP - thoughtful, evidence-based, and transparent. I have huge amounts of respect for Greg, not just for the conclusion he came to, but the way he came to it, and utterly condemn those who are berating him on twitter for not being perfectly aligned with whatever THEY think is right. Yes, Summerskill, I'm looking at YOU. I remember 2010, and your hypocrisy is breathtaking. Anyway, thanks Greg.

The battle isn't over for equal rights, not by a long way, and there's still a lot of work to do before the T in LGBT+ in particular are not subject to institutionalised discrimination. But today's skirmish in the battle for equality was mostly a big step in the right direction, and I am glad the overall vote went the way it did, with as big a majority as it did. Now it needs to go through the Lords...
  • Current Mood: tired
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"Exciting changes": Dear Flickr, I don't think that word means what you think it means.

tajasel: Photo of me pointing a camera outwards and grinning. (Default)
[personal profile] tajasel
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 08:43 pm
Cynical brain: so that's how Yahoo are financing Tumblr - by screwing over photographers.

Rational brain: so before, I paid $25/year for unlimited space with no advertising. Now (because my pro account lapsed without sufficient warning) I get to pay double for less space, and as an added bonus, the pleasure of providing Yahoo with an advertising platform. Forgive me if I don't understand which bit I'm meant to be impressed by?

I guess the time has come for me to finally redevelop thisiskatie.co.uk as a portfolio website rather than a photoblog. (In the copious spare time I have between exam revision, doing a full-time work placement, helping to run a conference and getting enough sleep, of course.)
  • Current Mood: miffed
  • Current Location: Stockport
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Probably just down behind the sofa anyway

strangecharm: (Default)
[personal profile] strangecharm
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 07:53 pm
The one app I use on my phone that has ads has recently acquired a bunch of baffling god-bothery ones. The other day I saw an ad that said something like "New life in God."

It's a sign of how frazzled and exhausted and overwhelmed I've been lately that this morning on the bus to work when I was presented one such ad consisting solely of "Find Jesus" in big letters, my only thought was Oh hell no, that's just another thing I'm too busy and tired to do. If he got himself lost, he's just going to have to stay that way.

Interpreting "Find Jesus" as an impossible wearying demand says more than I'd like about the state I'm currently in. Though it did make me smile and roll my eyes, too, if only at my own ridiculosity.
  • Current Music: XTC - "This Is Pop"
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Clearing Out – DC edition

innerbrat: (comics)
[personal profile] innerbrat
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 01:02 pm

So the biggest thing, weight-wise, that I find myself owning and unable to take anywhere, is a big pile of comics. Yay comics! Boo, comics are heavy.

I can, and will of course, dump a pile of them on Goodwill and Housing Works, but I suspect they will never find someone to love and read them, so I thought I’d let you guys have a look see which you would like to buy.

(I’d ask for shipping, and a donation towards the American Red Cross, the HI Fund at GOSH or another charity, should you not wish to donate to those two.)

My huge pile includes:

Batman, Detective Comics pre-52, Batman nu52, mostly written by Scott Snyder, covering the excellent Black Mirror storyline, the Court of Owls, and the mini-series Gates of Gotham. Some wonderful Dick-as-Batman in the pre-52 series.

Pre-52 Gotham including 3 issues of Steph-Batgirl, The Return of Bruce Wayne (Oracle, Jim Gordon, Batgirl) (Fi) and Streets of Gotham

Batwoman, the entire nu52 run, which as far as I’m concerned is some of the best of the nu52 comics available. ALSO Chase 100 page special with background to one of the main characters of the current series. Includes Batwoman #0 signed by Amy Reeder. (Gen)

Supergirl – Kelly Sue DeConnick’s storyline, and the first arc of her nu52 run. I really liked this nu52 story, but dropped it when they took away the things that made her interesting.

Secret Six – the final few arcs on one of the best things Gail Simone has written. [Jen]

Birds of Prey – all pre-52. Not as many as I thought I had, but also by Gail Simone and all very excellent :) (Gen)

Stormwatch – nu52. Paul Cornell had a good run of this, and I got bored eventually after he left. Read it for Midnighter and Apollo, because they are excellent.

Knight and Squire – GUYS THIS IS EXCELLENT. Paul Cornell’s mini series about the British representatives of Batman inc. (Fi)

Wonder Woman – Pre52 and nu52. Cliff Chiangs art on the nu52 stuff is great.(Kat)

Worlds’ Finest - the entire Huntress mini starring Helena Wayne, and the first arcs of the Power Girl/Huntress Worlds’ Finest title. (Kat)

nu52 grab bag – books I started for a few issues, including Static Shock, Firestorm, a story line about Vandal Savage’s daughter, and Blue Beetle [Jen]

Coming up: Marvel and independents. Ask me for details!

This post can also be found at Thagomizer.net. Feel free to join in the conversation wherever you feel most comfortable.

Influences

strangecharm: (Default)
[personal profile] strangecharm
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 11:03 am
[livejournal.com profile] uglybuffy's band is playing at the International Pop Overthrow tonight!

I'm very fond of the IPO, having been a few times to see friends of Andrew's play and indeed to help him out a bit with his own headline slot there at the Cavern one night. The friend who was staying with us last week is here for the IPO, and if Andrew hadn't been feeling poorly on Saturday that's where he'd have been.

I found the description of the band she's in, Midland Railway, on this page. It was so different from the others I'd read ("puts the POWER into power trio" "dares to combine the genres of indie rock and classical music" and please no one tell me what "space rock" means; it's bad enough that I now recognize "shoegaze") that I read it out to Andrew.

"A delightfully quirky and enigmatic pop band from Manchester who describe their music as what it might sound like if really camp aliens, in miniskirts and feather boas, alien-napped Weezer and Rilo Kiley and Blur and put them all together and shook them up with a dash of alien music and some prettier people."

I was a little surprised when Andrew said it didn't sound very good. I teased him about how he only likes bad music (he played his new Beach Boys CD at me repeatedly yesterday, which was almost worse than the migraine except that it doesn't last as long) and he took umbrage of course, and I thought that was the end of that, but then he said "It was sounding okay until 'Kylie'!"

But since I was hearing this, though, rather than reading it, it took me a second to figure out what happened there.

I assured him that Rilo Kiley is different and much better. Made me laugh though.
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The Blood is The Life 21-05-2013

miss_s_b: (Default)
[personal profile] miss_s_b
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 10:00 am
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Conversation with Charles

rmc28: (charles2011)
[personal profile] rmc28
Monday, May 20th, 2013 08:11 pm
[C is waving a firefighter's helmet around]

Me: Do you want to be a firefighter when you grow up?

Charles: No, I want to be a dad. [pause] And one of those people, what are they called? Who give lifts?  Taxis?

Me: A taxi driver?

Charles: Yes.  A dad and a taxi driver.


.....

As [twitter.com profile] ghoti pointed out, taxi-driver is a job that can combine well with childcare duties.

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Time is an illusion; lunchtime doubly so.

nanila: wrong side of the mirror (me: wrong side of the mirror)
[personal profile] nanila
Monday, May 20th, 2013 08:01 pm

[Image of Humuhumu looking over her shoulder in a white sun hat and green top, a curled-up Telstar and the bloke, all lounging on a red blanket in our back garden.]

This photo gives an entirely false impression of what the last week has largely been like. I've been chronically short on sleep and generally quite stressed. I have to force myself to pick up my camera, but it's worth it to capture these rare relaxed moments so that I can revisit them instead of the others.

( +2 )
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Alright, let’s make this official

innerbrat: (heart + stomach)
[personal profile] innerbrat
Monday, May 20th, 2013 11:29 am

I’m going home.

This is not what I wanted, and it’s stressing me the fuck out.

But it’s okay in many ways. I miss Abby. And Charlie. I miss Izzy, and Sam and Lauren. And I hate uncertainty.

New York was the very best thing I could have done for myself. The reasons didn’t pan out, but I am a healthier, happier, more knowledgable person than I was three years ago. And New York, Bank Street, Gotham Girls, Ana and Becca made that happen.

The job I’m leaving is the very best job I could ever have had – the job and my boss and everything about it seemed so perfectly designed for me and my expertise and my personality that me not getting to do it for longer feels like concrete disproof of the existence of narrativium in our lives.

I don’t want to go.

But I can do it.

Now, who wants to buy my comics?

This post can also be found at Thagomizer.net. Feel free to join in the conversation wherever you feel most comfortable.