Dundee just showing off!
I write stuff He/Him https://jamesoswald.co.uk
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Dundee just showing off!
It’s been suggested there might be. Probably later when I’m asleep.
Noraura
Today would be a good day for Keir Starmer to resign.
Inject this into my veins.
What David says. It’s not the immigrants.
English is such an unhelpful language sometimes.
Idly wishing more people understood that ‘fittest’ in ‘survival of the fittest’ meant ‘best fit’ rather than ‘strongest’.
The mistake is thinking it’s ‘our’ media. It’s been the mouthpiece of the far right for decades now.
@sirbenfro.bsky.social Bombs are falling daily, food is running out, and children are crying from hunger. My family is suffering, and we don't know how much longer we can hold on. Please, help us if you can. Every small action matters now to save my family. Don't ignore our voices, please. 🥺🍉💔🫂
The party conference this year will be interesting. Strong authoritarian streak in this government are not going to be happy with what the grass roots tell them. We are ill served by all our politicians these days.
My mum wanted to call me Richard, until it was pointed out to her that all the Richard Oswalds in the family's recent history had been ne'er-do-wells. Quite pleased I didn't end up a Dick.
Never thought I would miss the infighting and incompetence of the last lot, but there you go!
True. Perfect assholes sometimes, but still perfect.
Anyway, I think that's done. Have a perfect cat.
Think I'll go out tonight and spray 'Yorkshire tea comes from India' on all the flags.
I have plans for Constance. I love writing her and would dearly like to do more. I just need to persuade my publisher that it's a good idea!
Depends what time he gets to work and opens his email tomorrow. I could have hours yet. First scene done anyway, one more to go.
Promised my editor a revised draft of McLean 15 by the end of the week, which by self-employed standards means today. So of course I've just thought of a much neater ending that means entirely rewriting the final chapter.
Scottish independence is looking more appealing by the day.
I've started on season 3, but frankly I'm still pissed off that Sam Neill was only in the first episode of season one.
Can't help but feel a lot of the Angela Rayner 'coverage' is basically along the lines of 'this is a working class woman who's done something with her life but still doesn't know her place.' Tell me about the property empires of Farage and the likes of Jenrick please.
I have to say, I didn't have Labour out-fashing the Tories and Reform on my bingo card for 2025. What a strange world we find ourselves in.
Gender did not exist in 1998, the year that Dana International, a trans woman, won the Eurovision Song Contest
Oxford can get chilly in winter, too. Don't much fancy the bills for heating that place.
'detached house' doing a lot of heavy lifting there!
Floof!
Sometimes we’re unsatisfied with a thing we made because when it only existed in our head, we saw all the things it could have been and when it’s done we know all the things that it isn’t, but we can’t see the way it expands into a million new things when someone else unpacks it in their head. 🖊️🦑
Happy Birthday young man!
He’s surely going to come a cropper.
Look
See how easy it is to do this?
Us authors will continue to get screwed regardless. And not in a good way.
The devil will of course be in the detail, but I'd see it purely as payment for what they've already used. If it's more of an 'and we can carry on using as we please and you can't do anything else about it' then I wouldn't want any part of it.
Palindromic innit.
Timeline serendipity
It would appear today is a day for typing posts and replies and then deleting them unsent. Probably for the best.
I’m Sakher. I’m from Gaza. And I’m exhausted — physically, emotionally, spiritually. I don’t know how much more I can take. The world sees numbers. I live the names. I carry the screams. I walk through the ruins. I bury dreams. Every single day. We’re starving. gofund.me/f116bf44
I am Tasneem Abu Abed, I appeal to you and I am honest with you about everything. I had a rosy life and an excellent education, but the war destroyed all our dreams. Please help me to complete my education and healthy food, by sharing the link and donating.😭🙏🏻😭🙏🏻😭💔 gofund.me/b18154d6
I loved it as a teenager, but then I was at an all boys boarding school so it was almost inevitable I would. It hasn't aged well, though the films come off better than the series. It would be a dull old world if we all liked the same things and never changed.
It's so frustrating how everything involving computers is now 'AI' according to the press.
I will never get over how a handful of tech bros set billions of dollars on fire to build a plagiarism machine that doesn't work and will destroy human society when they could have used a fraction of that money to fund a new golden age of creativity and knowledge.
'Makes 10 drinks' is a lie, especially if you eat it dry by the teaspoonful. It's a miracle I still have any of my own teeth.
Nothing buried in that garden, oh no.
I checked my US published titles, and found only three had been registered with the US Copyright office. Seems even some US publishers didn't bother with non-US citizen authors.
Biblically accurate Englishman.
Nods.
Boobies!
The 'lesser evil' narrative is deeply ingrained here. A lot of people now wondering why they fell for it at the last general election, given that the lesser evil seems to be about the same as what was happening before.
Except in Wales, where they go 'pshhh-tee-coof, pshhh-tee-coof'.
This is heartbreaking and infuriating in equal measure. I just can't understand why the state makes everything so unnecessarily, cruelly complicated for people whose existence causes no harm whatsoever.
The team that put the zinc roof on my self-build house, though based in Edinburgh, were all French. Every day at noon they'd cook lunch for themselves in the unfinished room that would become my study. It always smelled deliciously of garlic and herbs. So much better than a Greggs pie and Irn Bru.
Possible causes of your problems. It’s a diagram that (sadly) still seems relevant in 2025, so reposting a year and a bit on.
I remember Bob Horses. Great guy, but a horrible noise he made when he laughed. Wonder what happened to him.
making tax digital is such bullshit. i shouldn't have to pay a company money to be allowed to pay the government my taxes.
Also good advice if you have an emergency mobile for any reason that you want to keep it secret... As well as for those people who don't want to have a stressful alarm going off for any reason.
they’ll just move him to a different parish and he’ll do it again
What does that even mean?
Racists hate being accused of racism because they know it's bad. Doesn't mean they're not racists though.
IIRC, behind that panel is an old fashioned shower unit with multiple heads each operated by one of those taps. Think I prefer the custard answer though.
The UK Government will test its Emergency Alert System on Sunday, 7th September at 3:00 PM. If you have a concealed phone for safety, this alert could reveal its presence. You can opt out of these alerts. Find out how here: www.gov.uk/alerts/optin... Please help share to help keep others safe.
It's a magnificent building, but you'll need deep pockets to restore it to its full glory.
I've stayed there. It's lovely, but add a zero to that sum for what needs to be spent on it.
Apparently the UK government are doing an emergency alert test on the 7th of September so just in case anyone knows any current domestic abuse victims who would need to have their safety phones switched off so as not to be outed, please pass it in.
The little message on the screen of my e-reader says 'sleeping', which is a bit judgemental really. I was just resting my eyes.
Or, as XKCD put it, Duty Calls … (https://xkcd.com/386/)
To that, I did not reply. Anyway, I can't help thinking that going through life burdened with Complete Knowledge of Correctness, with an added Duty to Enforce Correctness must be kind of stressful and not conducive to joy.
Try replacing ‘trans’ with ‘black’ and see how weird your phobia sounds to normal people. Trans rights are human rights.
Damned if I’m putting any of these in the icebox.
To much to hope that ignorant people might learn something, I guess.
My brother and sister-in-law have been raising funds to help Layla Mohammed and her family escape the hell in Gaza. I know times are tight for everyone, but if you can spare anything, even a repost, it is much appreciated. www.gofundme.com/f/layla-moha...
I'm ded 💀 😂 😂 😂
Surely everything he drinks just tastes of moustache.
The promise of the internet was that it would widen horizons. Instead it seems to have shrunk everyone's awareness down to only what they have experienced themselves.
The coup already happened, you just like to pretend it didn't.
From this week’s Beano.
I’m talking about Highland coos, not cats. They eat mostly grass.
Uk peeps - worth checking this out
They emit a lot of methane, yes. Not as much as abandoned oil and gas wells though.
Useful info if you’re not a US citizen but are published there. File a claim if you can!
Occasionally I post an invitation for people with crowdfunding appeals to put them in the comments of a post, and guess what: This is that occasion! If you have (or know someone who has) a crowdfunding appeal, share it here. Everyone else, check them out and it feels right to you, give a little.
The only european countries that are not signatories to the ECHR are Russia and Belarus and that’s all you need to know about people who want the UK to leave the ECHR and what they think about human rights.
@sirbenfro.bsky.social This war has left deep scars. I’ve lost my father, my shelter, and the work that sustained my family.💔 Your help, through a donation or a share, could bring light in these dark times. Thank you for standing with me.
Hi authors! Please remember to file a claim!
This is why I make my own, although it's not often I have the time. All the shop bought stuff is only good for toasting, and way too sweet.
Boosting again. If you are just now starting to realise the need to fight for Palestine then read this, it'll hurt, a lot, it'll haunt you as it has those who haven't ever stopped witnessing, vastly more those living through it, because this is what the world allows & who wants a world like that?
Bravo!
Haha! I'm not sure what the answer is myself! Not more than 21, since that's all there should be in that field.
Exactly. Then the tune stops and you scramble to pick it up again, ready to speak to a person, but it’s just the music starting again. And not even from to beginning!
Not a muffcake? I am disappointed.
fun fact: this comic is the origin of ‘Red Guy”, who appeared in a number of my later comics, such as
If there's one thing more annoying than hold music, it's hold music that stops briefly mid-tune so you think you're about to be answered, then starts up again for no apparent reason. Also why do they play that shit so loud?
Excellent! Thank you both!
On 27th August 2015, The Shepherd's Crown, the last book Sir Terry Pratchett completed before he died, was published. To mark the ten year anniversary, we have a message from Rob Wilkins:
The world is a very dark place right now.
Close.
Or the horns and divide by two.
Nobody's got it right yet.
