📚 Finished reading: Daytripper by Gabriel Ba and Fábio Moon. I couldn’t put this down. Released 15 years ago, it’s an Eisner winner and I’ve never read it. One of the very best comic I’ve read this year and I have read some seriously outstanding books.

Even at this early age, the rest of the children observed Onyx differently. The difference wasn’t in the colour of his skin, as no child was alike in that regard. The common trait between the children was the colour of their eyes. At this age, they were all as white as snow. By contrast, Onyx had eyes as black as night.

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The orbs offered the children an object of pure wonder. The game they played simply involved passing the orbs to each other. Every time one of the children held the orb it would change colour, unique to every child. The colour would shine for a few seconds before gradually fading away, returning to its empty vessel form, ready to be awakened again by another child.

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Obama won the US presidential election 17 years ago. Let that sink in for bit.

The golden era of Vertigo Comics ended around a decade ago. DC have decided to bring it back this year. The thing is there is an absolute treasure trove of incredible books that were created that I know I have not engaged with by some excellent writers.

The only thing that you could count on with Vertigo, like HBO is the new voices and artists you had not heard of that were about to produce magic. For this alone, I hope that the new venture is successful for the. If it’s not, the back catalogue has enough to engage me for at least another decade.

As babies, the stream of milk which flowed from the tree itself and was all the nourishment they needed. As they grew, they needed more than sustenance. They needed an environment that encouraged experimentation, that allowed ideas and skills to be tested. The Garden provided tools of engagement. As infants the first of these were the orbs. Small lifeless bulbs that turn to life as soon as a child held one.

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The Garden’s sole purpose was to provide the children with an environment to play and grow. The Garden provided the children with everything they needed to take care of themselves. The Garden provided the children with the best environment for them to grow with complete autonomy as there were no adults.

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Part 1 of my new series of articles have been written - at least as a first draft. That’s twelve concise articles on how to enter the construction industry in a position and role that you will thrive in. It’s been great getting back into writing on a regular basis - roughly 20-30minutes a day. Sunday mornings is when I like to polish my 500 words. I’m not holding myself to any schedule (so sometimes I do it and sometimes I don’t).

My genuine hope is that I will be useful to those just leaving University and trying to enter the job market.

As much as I hate daylight savings in the spring, I love it in the winter. This is the good one where we are given for the only time ever, the literal gift of time.

The tree was at the centre of a rich and elaborate garden that had formed around it. The garden was overflowing with a seemingly infinite selection of fruits, nuts and vegetables. Milk and honey flowed from the tree into separate ponds. And within all of this colourful beauty, children roamed freely.

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The tree stood tall and proud against everything around it. The base of the tree was so thick it would take a full day to walk all the way around it. The trunk, which snaked upwards twisting and branching out in every direction. The foliage that covered the tree was thick, exploding with colour.

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Every November I try and get some fiction written. It’s a small win for me as it flexes very different kind of muscles for me. This year I am going to be publishing the third chapter of my Colours series that has been sloshing in my head for over two decades. Eventually I want to add spot illustrations for this thing.

Affinity (by Canva) is a reimagining of the old Serif Affinity suite of apps in one single place. Really not sure what to make of it all. I loved it previously that I paid for a kick ass product and knew where I stood. You make good stuff. I give you money and the cycle continues. This feels weird. Software this polished and this good should not be free. Right?

⚾️ Yesavage is our favourite player. Mainly because of the awesome name, but turns out he’s and awesome pitcher as well. Bonus.

📚 Finished reading: Starve Vol. 2 by Brian Wood. A solid ending. The characters really grew on me. The premise was really fun. The artwork was excellent in that grimy Vertigo comics way.

⚾️ After a crazy ridiculously long ass game yesterday, we’re back even on this one and playing back home. Bring it home Blue Jays.

The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away.
— David Viscott ✱

✱ Although regularly misattributed to Pablo Picasso.

First properly cold day of the year…and I’m kinda here for it all. Think I’m going to make a butternut squash chilli.

⚾️ Fakking hell do these baseball people love to chew and spit. Legit disgusting.

Toronto pride is in full swing. Everyone in the city is wearing some Blue Jays merch of some description. I’m not there yet, considering I love baseball movies, but really feel underwhelmed by baseball games, but I love the city wide sentiment — something extremely North American about this.

I get it now. Creamy keyboards. It’s not something you can express in words. You have to experience it to understand. Having weighted keys that offer a tiny soft clack is next level typing. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get into this world.

I feel a fool for not just getting Keyboard Maestro earlier in my Mac life. I’m still kicking the tires, but can’t wait to really do some cool things with this app.

🍿Finished watching: Reunion I actually really enjoyed this movie. Had enough character as a comedy and who done it to keep me engaged.

Oh no. A couple of the guys got some mechanical keyboards at work and now I’ve found myself hunting on Amazon for different kinds. The Nuphy Air 75 (with Cowberry switches) looks like the one for me…for this evening. Tomorrow might be a different story.

Of course Brian Wood would have a newsletter. What’s more interesting however is that he’s publishing stories in a serialised format right there. Fire hose, but I’m here for it.

📚 Finished reading: Starve Vol. 1 by Brian Wood. Vertigo comics might be dead (without Karen Berger), but this book would have fit right into that catalogue. Brilliant series. Art is wonderful, characters are well thought out and the story moves along nicely.

Inktober 2025/18. I am seriously enjoying the absolute freedom of drawing Corgan from any angle.

🍿Finished watching: Silo Season 1. Great show. So strong in fact as soon I finished watching this I went and read the books, which are truly incredible.

🚗 Can’t believe it’s been an entire year since we bought the car. We went for nearly 5 years without one - several of which were covid years. 6000km driven this year….not a whole lot really.

Inktober 2025/15.
Be still my beating heart, I get to draw my characters from below or above without breaking into sweats!

Inktober 2025/14. My characters in actual perspective - where I kinda know what I’m trying to do. Long way to go, but first steps and all that.

It’s not every morning your meeting gets cancelled. It’s a great day for a short walk and you stumble upon something relatively serene in the city of Toronto.

Perspective drawing has eluded me for the entire time I have been drawing. I have spent plenty on books and tried watching videos but never invested in an actual course that looks to teach me these fundamentals in a manner that I can use again and again. I’m actually really excited to be able to take my art to the next level, because I feel this is one of those skills that unlocks whole new worlds for me and finally what’s in my brain can be translated onto paper.

Definitely going to be posting things as I go along so that I can track progress.

📚 Finished reading: We Need Your Art by Amie McNee. One of the most important books I have read. I do wish that I had this book 20 years ago because it would have helped frame a lot of what I am going through better. I’m very thankful it exists and recommend it to anyone with a creative endeavour.

I recently visited Jason Santa Maria’s website. Couple of important points of note. You can download his book On Web Typography directly from the home page. It’s a timeless piece of writing if you’re interested making better websites. The other thing I wasn’t aware of was the fact that he is now creating his own typefaces. Citywide looks great.

Inktober 2025/12.
Not every day I create a new character but there is momentum with sketching something (anything!) every day.

400th post this year.

When I think back across the years where there was friction to posting to my site it makes me sad because there are so many wonderful moments that I didn’t record.

Your site is such a wonderful gift to your future self fill it with fun stuff recording your moments to relive and remember later on.

Inktober 2025/11. Creating a new character is only fun after progress has been made.

Like with my beer, I have started recording my coffee adventures. For the newcomer to anything really, finding a simple resource of recommendations is actually pretty important. Hopefully this will help others find things to their tastes.

Listening to Kings of Leon. It’s been too long. Love Kings of Leon.

It’s Thanksgiving weekend (Canadian edition). I do love this time of the year and this holiday does generally come at a good time for a little reflection and a little resetting just before the brutality of winter kicks in. Going to try and get some reading, writing and drawing done.

📚 Finished reading: Goliath by Tom Gauld. I love Gauld’s aesthetics and the story was…an interesting flip.

It’s that time of the year and colours they are popping. I wonder if one’s life mirrors that of a tree and you get moments of brilliance after middle age.

🥶 First cold day of the year. It dropped seemingly overnight.

I may have overdone the coffee selection this month.

🍳 Pastitisio. I’ve not made this in years. It all came together really well. Reminded me of home in Greece. Did a light cucumber, tomato, onion and basil salad. Chef’s kiss.

Looking to start my Stet newsletter up again, but with a pretty different type of writing about the built environment. When I started I was using Buttondown but then moved to Substack hoping that would be a better fit (this was pre-Nazis on that platform). Had a look at Buttondown again and it’s looking better now with some cool new features. Also at $7/month that’s good value.

One of my first Japanese beers that isn’t a Sapporo Super Dry.

Been listening to Mariah Carey’s Someone’s Ugly Daughter album (not officially released, but 3 seconds of internet search and you can easily download it). Completely of it’s time. Would easily sit next to a Hole album or 4 Non Blondes. Love it.

I’ve been collecting watches for 7 years now (I buy one watch a year). My latest purchase fits my current lifestyle a lot. It’s a JPM Seiko with a solar movement, aligned to the atomic clock. Don’t really have the energy (inclination) to constantly tweak the time or date. This thing just stays correct on its own. My favourite is if I’ve put it away for a weekend (because it’s a more dressy watch) it all magically realigns itself, date and all.

Feeling a little restless at the moment. Lots going on in life.

The internet and social media is hopefully meant to enrich you in ways you might have been completely oblivious to. @manton’s sent me down the Richard Williams rabbit hole. Interestingly his book The Animator’s Survival Kit is available on the Internet Archive. Not sure if that’s a legit thing.

America At Its Breaking Point. I love Trevor Noah, but much more from this podcast than when he was on The Daily Show. The episode with Ezra Klein was fascinating and the perfect thing for a Sunday afternoon.

One of my favourite international beers has a new ‘livery’.

It’s not every day you see a bat flying around in the park. I’ve drawn these things countless time in my childhood but never seen one before - at least not that I can remember. Previously I would have been in awe, now I’m thinking get away from me diseased thing :).

Finances are a dirty business to get into. I will make sure I give the boys sound financial advice that they understand and can implement easily because it’s a massive mental overhead when you make the wrong decision.

The trains exits the tunnel and rides the bridge crossing the Don Valley. Out in the distance, like a painting I see rows of trees, layered behind each other slowly fading away, thick from the morning rain. It feels like autumn.

I’m putting this in here to remind Yasmine that the summer (or hot and sunny weather) does extends well into September. It’s not guaranteed but it happens. Still in shorts and t-shirts.

New book. New pocket notebook. Been a while since I used a Moleskine. Love the fact I customise the cover to whatever I want.

New park in Toronto. Chilling with other parents (Carl, Amar and Christine) in glorious sunshine - not many more of these days left before Winter starts to kick in.

Signboard is a kanban app that writes Markdown files by Colin Devroe. I can confirm that this thing loads up quickly. For a good while I did use the Obsidian plugin (and loved it). Maybe I’m just not into this style of productivity any more?

I have been slowly building my drawing muscle again. Drawing a character from every angle for a few months until I can draw them with my eyes closed.

Shutter Declutter. I need to save some space on my machine, clearly 250GB is no longer what it used to be (which is nuts to me). Photos are an easy target and this looks like a small strokes fell big oaks kinda app.

I’ve not been keeping track (15 years ago I linked to Dominic ’s Biolab Disaster) but a few years ago it seems that some of the original source code for WipeOut was leaked and he’s rewritten it into a web based game….and it is faithful to the original. Easily one of my favourite racing games ever.

reMarkable Paper Pro Move. Great overview/infomercial for the new remarkable tablet. But at $800 (Canadian) for the exact same setup as the video, that is a very pricey device. You can shave a little with a simpler stylus, but a case is essential.