One of my first ever gigs was writing comedy sketches for a BBC digital channel using MS Comic Chat, which they filmed as if it were a super low frame rate cartoon. The most incredibly cheap TV. I think we (my writing/performing partners and I) generated a few hours of usable footage for them and got paid about 50 quid each.
Its still one of the summer jobs I look back on with a wistful what-if. I worked in a small (10ish employees) factory in the 1990s. I selected, bent and inserted resistors into fire alarm PCBs. If I'd been there longer than 6 weeks I think I'd have learned more about it. But I'd already lined up my next job at the pub a few doors down.
I would for sure be that rookie who is paralysed with indecision over whether to read "clean" as an adjective or an imperative. Is it telling me that it's clean or that it needs cleaning?
Pipe smoking has always seemed a bit more acceptable than other methods. The smell of pipe tobacco burning is much more fragrant than that of cigarettes or cigars. It also has a kind of nostalgic charm.
I made a herbal smoking mixture recently with various dried herbs and leaves. Mullein, lemonbalm, marshmallow root, hazel, blackberry and beech leaves, which I smoke in a briar pipe that I've had for years. It's a nice way to relax in the evening every couple of days or so, although I'm sure it's not entirely free of harmful chemicals. And I wouldn't do it outside of my own garden, not until I'm into my 60's I think. I'd be too self-conscious.
It's taken me reaching my fifties and entering an entirely new career to realise this.
That arrogance and ambition of youth, the hard-line unwillingness to compromise and study other people's work really held me back!
I had the same experience when I ran into him at a bar backstage at a Blur gig in the mid 90s. My dad was friends with his dad in 1960s Sheffield, but since the bloke walked out on his family when Jarvis was 7, it wouldn't have been much of a conversation starter.
I use an Xppen 24" Pro display tablet. I enjoy using it but my Linux mint machine simply won't boot with it plugged in. I haven't figured out a workaround beyond physically disconnecting both cables every time. And when I boot up and reconnect, my machine never remembers the screen mapping, so there's enough friction there for me to avoid plugging it in for days if not weeks at a time.
I made a hat - an old one was getting threadbare so I used a seam ripper to take it apart, drew around the parts onto new fabric, and sewed the parts together. The brim was a bit tricky and the stitching isn't super straight because of the thick canvas (also, I wish I'd made it out of thinner material) but I get a kick out of saying I made it!
