I forgot to mention how lovely the Internet can be

Last week I went for (mild) surgery. I’m so special, I know.

I had never been before and I was told I’d be put under general, so would be completely unconscious. I hate sleep enough already precisely for this reason, of being immobile and unaware of what’s happening. Anyway, somehow one of my digital friends on Twitter, the wonderful artist Sally Jane Thompson, asked what she should draw for me.

I replied, not realising she was serious, with “the beauty of two different minds creating a single thing of beauty (ie comics)” [excuse the poor phrasing] – due to my love of the medium and my desire to write comics one day.

Anyway, she really did create a stunning piece for me. I’d rather not post it here as I want you to see it on her lovely site. Do give it look.

Amidst all the horribleness of most Internet interaction, it’s wonderful that someone who is effectively a complete stranger took time out of her busy life, to use the very skills she earns an income from, to draw something to wish me well.

It might sound silly, to some, but it means a great deal to me. It’s not often we get gifted with such things, especially as I know what it means to use your money-making skills for a friend, just to make his or her day slightly better.

On the blog’s name

This is a slightly edited and older post explaining why the blog is entitled ‘The Indelible Stamp’. My position still hasn’t changed since writing this, though I do think I wouldn’t be so “yellow”, as one commenter called me, when writing (flowery language, forcing metaphors, etc.)

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The blog’s name, as some might know, comes from Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man (1871). Since I’ve had to start thinking about a thesis-topic, I’ve had to aggregate my views and, indeed, the views I oppose into neat headings. Thus, when contemplating what it is I stand against, what the special contentions are that manage to crawl beneath my skin, set fire to my blood and dance between the raised hair on my skin, I came to a conclusion: it is the persistent view that our existence, as a species, is something meaningful beyond the bounds of human ties. [Read more…]