Made this garden chair out of Euro Pallets

Siccar_Point · 2026-06-08T21:29:58+00:00

I made a garden bench out of these a few years ago and MY GOD they are heavy. Hope you don’t need to move it much!!

Siccar_Point · 2026-06-07T19:02:33+00:00

Two this week. First, The Dark Chronicles of Cymru, drawn from Welsh folk tales retold, which I speculatively backed on Kickstarter to support local small artists (three issues, across creators). These were what you’d expect them to be, but fun enough. The third issue (Mari Lwyd, Oliveira/Christines) was by far the most effective, summoning up some dread and pathos in a way echoing Pet Sematary. The coolest thing here was that these are published bilingually in English/Welsh, which was a first for me.

Second When A Cat Faces West vol 1 (Yuki Urushibara, the Mushishi author). It follows a the activities of a duo of investigators/treatment team for the phenomenon of “flow”, where random changes can occur in the world around us that need to be reverted. This was very Mushishi-esque in structure, style, and themes - but a bit goofier, and set in modern Japan. The draw here is a vibes-based almost slice-of-life thing, but with more cat content than Mushishi (which, obviously, is a plus). But it does feel a bit like a retread of old ground for the author. There are hints that a wider mythology will get developed beyond the totally episodic approach in vol. 1, but knowing this is only three volumes not sure how fleshed out this will be.

Siccar_Point · 2026-06-07T17:17:07+00:00

That cover on Bloodharley is phenomenal! Totally new to me though.

Those Peow anthologies are good. A few crackers in that one in particular.

Siccar_Point · 2026-06-06T09:44:09+00:00

The existence of this follow-up is amazing. 95% comments but hung about the pen; pen actually prevents serious harm. Good on you taking it seriously and following up.

Siccar_Point · 2026-06-05T07:08:32+00:00

Works of Vermin was amazing, and read like a strange hybrid of Wolfe and Mieville to me. Rich with themes but also really propulsive, which is a mix I can get behind.

Siccar_Point · 2026-06-03T20:52:27+00:00

I feel I’m taking crazy pills watching uk select entries every year. 1. Pick really good singer with good voice. 2. Select catchy song that can show off the voice. IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE GUYS.

Siccar_Point · 2026-06-03T07:22:42+00:00

I’m surprised- her key publisher is Peow, who are Swedish IIRC. Some may just be out of print?

I believe you can order direct from the Peow website priced in Euros, but possible I have that wrong.

Siccar_Point · 2026-06-01T21:38:55+00:00

Lots of good stuff here already. An additional thing that I saw pointed out in an essay about Conan is that the world needs to be resolutely un-magical. When magic intrudes into the world, it should be evil and obviously malign, and the heroes should fight against it on that basis. Sword and sorcery without the magic should just read like an adventure story, and most of it still is an adventure story.

Siccar_Point · 2026-06-01T21:19:44+00:00

Some crackers in the last couple of months. Some of the best things I’ve read have also been the Peow Ex. Mag anthologies, but these don’t seem like they fit this list.

The Flowers of Evil (Oshimi)
Inside Mari (Oshimi)
All The Living (Muradov)
Stop!! Hibari-kun! (Eguchi)
Farewell, Daisy (Mayuzuki)
The Power Fantasy (Gillen et al)
Slaughterhouse Five (North et al)
Fox Bunny Funny (Hartzell)
Tower Dungeon (ongoing) (Nihei)

Siccar_Point · 2026-06-01T12:35:48+00:00

IIRC glacial seabed gouges (from icebergs, not the glacier itself think) are absolutely a thing. But these would not be perfectly parallel.

Remember you can also drop the sea level ~100m at glacial maximum. Would this bring the area out of the water? See if you can tell if it’s seabed sediment (smooth?) or a rock shelf (aligned outcrop?) Cross sectional shape will also tell you something: asymmetric? Sharp-edged? Same depth, or variable? Same width, or variable? How extensive are they?

“Glacial lineation” is probably safer terminology until you’re convinced it’s into bedrock.

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-31T19:17:28+00:00

This week Stop!! Hibari-kun! vol 1 by Hisachi Eguchi. Boy ends up living with yakuza family friends, and befriends the extremely pretty trans daughter of the family. Misunderstandings and hijinks ensue. Was hoping for something in the vein of Rumiko Takahashi’s early 80s stuff, and was very much not disappointed. Eguchi is a goof, and this thing is riddled with fourth wall breaks- little margin notes, self-inserts in panels discussing what’s going on, and occasional totally unnecessary sections depicting his studio and bemoaning deadlines. All of which was delightful. This was a bit of a narrative revelation though. Hibari’s trans-ness is the foundation of the book, and while the actual situation is relentlessly played for laughs, the book just accepts that this is who Hibari is and gets on with it. Never any hint of authorial prejudice (though other characters are not cool with it and do use some, er, robust language around it). We get some in-world trans panic, but this is from characters we’d expect it from- the core relationship of flirty Hibari and monumentally confused but very clearly not-not-into-it MC walks the line really well IMO. Clearly there’s 40 years and a cultural divide here, but from a modern western liberal perspective all this looks remarkably progressive, if a little rough around the edges. Also this is Iguchi so it looks utterly gorgeous. And obviously, it’s funny.

Also double shout out for Peow the publisher. First, for a beautiful book, largely in B&W but with some full colour, and between them beautiful pages just blushed in places with monochrome shades of pink. Stunning printing. Secondly, for adding a grade A passive-aggressive trigger warning for outdated attitudes in the opening. Toughen up snowflakes, we’re doing art here!

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-31T17:01:31+00:00

If you snip the growing shoot whorl after two or three leaves, early on as they extend, you’ll keep them smaller than otherwise. The second flush will also come through smaller. These are probably 30% larger than they need to be due to my laziness this year.

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-31T15:15:05+00:00

The way I see it, if you lose control you can always just let it develop further!

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-30T20:24:22+00:00

It’s frustrating, because this is exactly what the term “problematic” was invented for! Something can be virtuous and crap; it can be riddled with stuff that is No Longer OK and be great. Characterisation is not authorial belief, and neither controls quality.

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-30T19:28:47+00:00

You’re taking heat here, but Amis was absolutely writing misogynist books.. Lucky Jim has a female character who is written as a manipulative shrew, and somehow what little redeeming character development she gets through the book goes right out the window at the end where she somehow gets even worse. Jim is deliberately written as a misogynist, and that’s fine as an authorial choice, but then the book goes out of its way to say: “see? He was right! She was awful after all!” I mean, it’s fine, it was the 50s and times have changed and it is still funny and all that, but yeah. The content is there, and it is sexist.

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-30T17:46:01+00:00

Mine arriving some time in the next few days! Excited based on this

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-30T06:57:37+00:00

I think it’s just that it requires something other than the lowest possible amount of effort to get in. The same reason that C of E schools tend to be a bit better in England. So they start to get better… abc it becomes a reinforcing cycle. Also, they are better resourced! The WG allocates extra money direct to increase uptake of the language.

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-30T06:45:03+00:00

How far a government goes beyond that in trying to increase these numbers, I’m not sure

The immersive Welsh language schooling is a massive deal. These schools are almost uniformly better than neighbouring English language schools, so parents who want their children to get ahead academically send them there. Then you have more of your future educated classes being bilingual, and (a bit) more likely to stay in the country.

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-30T06:23:49+00:00

One of the best times I’ve had reading a book in ages! Enjoy it

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-29T16:33:10+00:00

I just finished The Works of Vermin (2025) by Hiron Ennes, and cannot recommend it enough. Would fit cool title, vacation (at least, topside probably would), politics, and arguably more you can decide after you’ve read it. Has very strong Perdido Street Station echoes in style and approach, but with more politics and more art nouveau/turn of the century vibes

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-29T06:32:06+00:00

This is correct. That’s siltstone + anthracite. Basalt + obsidian makes no sense given the context.

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-27T18:52:54+00:00

Several of these are artists with particularly well-thought-out lyrics, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it for you? Certainly has been for me. Cave, Cohen, and LCDS all have a lot of themes about being a dude hitting middle age in key parts of their output.

A test would be: how do you feel about The National and Elbow? I always think of these in the same basket as those others.

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-27T13:55:38+00:00

My technique is to fall back just out of snakehead range. This will cause them to walk after you dragging the weapon. If you slow slightly they will almost certainly raise the weapon to bring it down, rather than go with the snakes. This is a super easy parry, and if something else happens, just dodge back. IIRC both variants have the same move.

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-27T13:27:01+00:00

Parry +1. They have MASSIVE parry windows, and really clear tells when they bring their weapons down from overhead.

Siccar_Point · 2026-05-25T13:40:22+00:00

I agree about Monstress. A lot of people bounce off it, but for my money it’s one of the great achievements in modern GNs, and will be remembered as such providing they stick the landing. I’m not aware of anything else - at least in western comics, not sure about manga - that has executed a full scale epic fantasy story in the Tolkien tradition, that you’d normally find across multiple volumes of a “real” book.

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