This morning the boys ventured out to meet friends at Oliver’s Castle. It was here that the Royalists trashed the Parliamentarians back in 1643 but today we decided against any battle reenactments, settling for flying kites instead.
The weather men predicted at least a 6mph wind which would have been perfect but sadly it was not to be. My kites were too heavy for the little wind that decided to show but the Godfather brought along a cute little butterfly which Charlie had a bash at flying with great success.
We also fired up the Geocaching App and starting hunting for hidden treasure but sadly the box had gone missing, probably pinched by those no good Royalists! Still, a fun and muddy time was had by all.
You’ve got to love kids TV, where else would you see a dog dressed up as a robot? They even gave it whirring noises as he moved - classic. Charlie loved it and instantly wanted to put Smartie tubes on the cat’s legs.
I used to read a great deal of blogs back in the day before I discovered books. For some reason one of them popped into my head the other day and upon visiting it after a gap of many years was very pleased to see that its still going strong. This got me thinking about visiting some other old haunts on the web and came up with the following blogs which are still being maintained and remain a great read as always:
Still keep reading blogs readers (especially mine), afterall theres some great people out and I think with the instant massaging and micro-blogging craze sweeping the globe the blogger is rather becoming a dying breed.
In an attempt to cover more ground, meet more people and receive some intersting mail in return, this recent fourth edition of Triumph will mainly be used for trading - zine for zine. I was introduced to this concept a little over a month ago and found it a great way to interact with other creative people out there putting pen to paper. I’m not aware of anyone getting rich from selling their zines so I’m always cautious about people who sell them for obvious reasons. I just about cover the production costs when selling mine, it would seem unfair to charge more with me. I’m hoping trading will be a fun alternative to the usual distribution method.
A few years ago out of pure curiosity, I hacked an old Nintendo controller and installed an flash drive within it. It was a messy job but once it was completed, it not only worked but actually looked pretty good too. You can see the first attempt here.
Well having collected a number of free branded flash drives, the sorted handed out at conferences I’m back staring at another controller picked up from the junk shop but this time with the proper tools.
I’ve found that the difficult bit of the task of building this is gutting the inside as theres a great deal of plastic moulded brackets to remove and I remember wrestling with these back in 2007. Still if you strip down the flash drive to its bare bones, it reduces the space needed to install it into the controller.
Next up is the trust glue gun to secure everything in place before you have to locate the screws you carefully put to one side only to lose them the second you take your eyes off them. However after much swearing and cursing whilst crawling on your hands and knees looking for them, the flash Nintendo controller is complete.
I have just finished the fourth edition of Triumph. Like the others before it, this one comprises of 20 pages of lunchtime sketches and illustrated diary entries from the last few months.
It was alway intended to be a quarterly publication and I’ve pretty much achieved an edition every 3 months which is pretty remarkable considering how busy its been with little Charlie. The fourth makes up a full year and its great to see how its evolved over that period. Its getting into its own grove and I love it and judging by the feedback from all the great people around the world its gone out to, its been well received and its their kind comments that have really boosted my confidence.
My aim with this one is to use it to trade with other zine makers. I started trading briefly with number 3 and got some great booklets back in return - it always amazes me how creative and talented people are. It is hoped that through trading it’ll keep me motivated and focused thus ensuring that people won’t be disappointed with my creations when they send me theres.
I’m working on a few ideas to include as freebies as people have done it with the zines they’ve sent me and it goes down rather well. so I dug out some card and fired up my photocopier and started making some basic bookmarks to slip in between the pages. The ones that don’t make the grade will be hidden in library books along with Moments in Time.
Lunch hours get a little boring at times so I invested in a few decent sketchbooks and made better use of my hour taking up camp in a few dusty corners of the city and filled the book with drawings. Triumph Zine is a collection of these sketches.
I love its rawness and amateur feeling it has about it, its rather like the old fan newsletters I used to get as a kid or local band fliers that you still see about today. Each issue contains 10 A5 pages of randomness.
You can pick up the Triumph Triple Pack, all three issues for just £1.50 by clicking here and visting the brand new Folksy shop.
My Shop
I make stuff and sometimes sell it too. You can see more samples in my shop.
Lunch hours get a little boring at times so I invested in a few decent sketchbooks and made better use of my hour taking up camp in a few dusty corners of the city and filled the book with drawings. Triumph Zine is a collection of these sketches.