Nopetober

Nopetober

I’d like to say I wanted to do Inktober this year and didn’t take part out of some principled stand against That Guy and What He Did but really I just wasn’t into it. Whether it actually counts as plagiarism or not, he has an enormous following and has an amazing opportunity to do something original and new and still be successful with it, but instead he just does the same old How To Draw book people have been writing for decades. This guy is just another tawdry businessman. Well done on your commercial success, guy.

So yeah, loads of other people were put off the whole Inktober thing and suddenly there were countless damn-near-everything-tober prompt lists all over the place. So, no, I just felt meh about all of it. Nopetober it is, then.

Onto brighter news the Welsh Independence campaign group Yes Cymru is gaining new members like crazy, mostly thanks to the dazzling performance of the Westminster government. I support the end of the United Kingdom and even the breakup of England because I think it’s the only way to exorcise the ghost of Empire and, as smaller countries, allow for more humane government. I grew up in the north of England and lived for a long time in the south, and they might as well be different countries. The UK is also incredibly centralised. The nearer London you are, the less you hear of anything not-London, but further away you still hear about everything to do with London. London is still the imperial capital and the empire isn’t the British Empire but the older one, the Empire of Britain.

That was brighter news apparently. All a bit heavy innit.

Onto lighter news, the US election! Ha ha no. That’s today, as I write this. Tomorrow… who knows.

Onto actual lighter news, I’ve been making paper flowers. I think I’ve made progress but I need to really develop the hand skills of dealing with crepe paper. It’s… weird stuff, but it does make good flowers. Now, if only every damn online retailer would change their search so that crepe paper doesn't match tissue paper it would make things a lot easier.

Also, we've been watching RuPaul's Drag Race. I watched the UK one earlier this year and I'd never seen any episode of any of it before. Then we watched the Canadian one, and then OK… series one of the US one. We're up to the current series (no spoilers please) but it's been fascinating. Now so many memes and phrases become clear.

The header is in Louche by Joona Louhi