Those alarmed by the clamour for discipline and ideological purity within the Labour Party of late perhaps have short memories. In researching my family history - and particularly my grandmother ’s arrival in England as a German teenager in 1935 - it has been fascinating to find out more about the dynamics and tensions within the Labour Party at this time amidst the growing concerns for fascism…
Well, I came upon a child of God He was walking along the road And I asked him, "Tell me, where are you going?" And this he told me. Said, "I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm Gonna join in a rock 'n' roll band Got to get back to the land Set my soul free. Joni Mitchell “Woodstock” Music at the stones, lunistice 2025 A long day It is now a week since I ventured up to the old stones of Calanais ,…
So here is the blog post I didn't want to write. It is with a huge amount of sadness that I've had to step back from my role as technical director at Mud . Since my diagnosis with Sarcoidosis in 2019 I have tried to continue working through what has ultimately been quite a debilitating, idiosyncratic and poorly understood disease. The lung involvement and associated fatigue followed by a series of…
Today sees the closing date for the UK Government Consultation on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence . If you are a creative or value the role of the Creative sector in the UK I would implore you to respond. Here is a wealth of fantastic resources to help: Find out more about the consultation and the important questions to answer on the Against the Box Substack Write to your MP via the Creative…
Or why I spend 20 minutes a day drawing strangers Every day - give or take - I sit down and spend twenty minutes or so sketching three random strangers . I could do this at a bus stop or in a crowded cafe but instead I reach for my phone and head on over to the @earthsworld Instagram account, pen and sketching pad in hand. Once there I’ll do a quick sketch of three or four portraits from the feed.…
In 2022 I was privileged to illustrate the children's graphic novel, You're Thinking About Tomatoes . Published by Unbound the book is a 118-page full colour adaptation of Michael Rosen's classic book of the same name. Uh-oh… Frank isn’t doing well at school, and he has just been told off by his head teacher again… He has one last chance to prove himself: all he has to do is follow the rules on…
Please find below a selection of various illustration work from the last five years including both professional and recreational examples. If you want to work together or find out more drop me an email at post@cole007.net .
I am a grown up. Last week we bought a kitchen. Well, I say bought… we took an interest free loan out to have some bits of prefabricated wood and particleboard and screws and stuff delivered to our home in a few years time. It’s exciting to carry out these small efforts to make a house a home. Can’t believe it has taken us eight years to get round to modifying our kitchen; a place that should (in…
No, not the Britany Spears song (or the marvellous Deftones mash-up version): Nor the 1990s British Comic for mature readers . Today we’re talking about drugs or rather medication. The stuff that you’re given to make you better. After a year where my Sarcoidosis has progressed into my lung tissue and also had a pretty good go at my eyes I have been “bumped up” to the interstitial lung disease team…
This time 18 years ago I was pacing the corridors of St John’s Hospital, Livingston waiting for divine intervention or someone that had more wise suggestions than “push” for an obstinate but content (and not so small at 9lb 11oz) chap. This after already having been chastised by Peta for doing the crossword with one of the midwives whilst she was being given yet stronger drugs. Still, my life long…
Some farewell thoughts on quitting social media. Haters gonna hate Yesterday I heard the news of Ed Piskor’s suicide. If you are not interested in comics you may never have heard of Ed. Perhaps you had come across one of this books, most notably the Hip Hop Family Tree series. Or perhaps his association with Jim Rugg as part of the ongoing Youtube video series “ Cartoonist Kayfabe ”. I’ve never…
Apparently it's TimeToTalkDay today - raising awareness of mental health illnesses. I've always been quite open (hopefully) about my own struggles with depression and anxiety. It has in some small way helped me to share my experiences and release some pressure from the internalising system from time to time. Since 2013 I have been taking medication to help manage the symptoms of these feelings…
Well I think it is safe to say that it has been quite a 2023. I’m feeling pretty wiped out as we approach the festive break and - as is quite usual this time of year - been feeling a bit low with the shorter, darker days. But on reflection there have been some pretty great highlights along the way as well. So the bad news first. My sarcoidosis has got worse this year. In April I started having…
Another update. However, in case you think my health is all I go on about (you are mostly correct) I'm also sharing a copy of my recent interview with all round lovely chap, Rich McCoy who asked me some questions about my creative journey , in another post. So, this week after over 4 months of steroid drops and tablets, literally dozens of scans and a fair bit of poking and prodding I had some…
I was recently asked by friend Rich McCoy to answer some questions on my creative journey. The Real McCoy Rich is a wonderfully creative human being and it is strange how we have circled different worlds for the last 20 years or so. We first "met" in a freelance mailing list (shout out to WAUK ). When I moved to professional web development I was in awe of Rich's visual design work and regularly…
Continuing to struggle with my eyes at the moment. Not looking for sympathy here. Just providing an update for those who are interested and treating the act of dumping my brain online as some form of (affordable) therapy. Non (Superman II) So as previously reported I have been on steroids (oral and drops) to tackle bleeds and inflammation in both eyes for four months now. The sarcoidosis is…
10 years . A decade. Can you remember the heady summer of 2013 ? Love Me Again by John Newman was riding high in the UK singles charts (yeah, no idea who that is either), Despicable Me 2 was cleaning up at the box office, Flappy Bird was released on iOS, Andy Murray had just won his first Wimbledon title and the internet was dominated by Grumpy Cat who lent her trademark scowl to a line of…
Late in 2019 I had a bit of a health scare . Originally thought to be lung cancer further tests and a biopsy revealed it to be a rare systemic inflammatory disease called Sarcoidosis attacking the lymph nodes in my lungs. In 2020 the sarcoidosis decided to have fun attacking my eyes which responded well to steroid drops. Reflecting on this attack I wrote: And I know full well that if it hits me a…
Well 2022 has been quite the year. Looking back there have been so many highs, some lows and barely a moment to stand still. If I was to sum up some themes from the year it would be about friendships. New ones were made, some were lost and existing ones were strengthened. The start of 2022 was to be frank a bit shit. I fell over after one beer too many at the leaving drinks for one of our…
Some days I’m okay. I can wake up, interact with other people just fine. Socialise normally. Work normally. Power through life. Go out drinking like the old days. And then there are the other days. Where I forget what normal is. Or rather I’d forgotten that normal for me is none of the above. I walk into the kitchen. I know I’ve come in there for a reason. But cannot fathom what that was. I yawn.…
I was in two minds about posting this up but as it is the day of Alex's memorial/celebration thought I would share some memories and a poem I wrote for Alex after hearing he had died. Alex and Laura were the first family we met when we moved to Frome - a valuable gateway to the mine of information on our new town and its surroundings. In a roundabout way it is thanks to them we moved here - their…
The cancer scare was a wake up call. I had been sleep walking into stress, working too hard and overdoing side projects. My body was trying to tell me something and I wasn’t listening. So it started shouting at me. I needed to reassess things - take things easier. In my head I was still the 24 year PhD student toiling most hours and drinking and smoking my way through the rest. I needed to slow…
It was a year ago today that I had that call . The day where everything flew into the air and I had no idea how things were going to land. The following weeks and months after that call were a blur. I don’t really remember much what happened. But I remember telling Peta. And the kids. And my parents. Telling them was the hardest. I spoke to my business partner. I was not going to be in work for a…
15th November 2019. I was working from home as I had an x-ray booked in at the hospital over the road in the morning. Peta was off in Wales visiting a friend. The boys were at school. I had been tired. Very tired. Falling asleep at work tired. And I had lost weight. I had brushed it off but friends were starting to comment. It was when my business partner Matt mentioned something I thought I would…
I've had an on/off battle with twitter for the past few years. On the one hand it has been an invaluable service for me: introducing me to some wonderful people, finding me work and pulling me up when I've been down. But on the other hand it is often a toxic echo chamber filled with negativity. I also find that the website itself often exacerbates an already negative mental health with its demand…
I, like many others , have found myself spending a lot of time lately reflecting on the state of the web and wanted to try and collect some thoughts on my concerns for our discipline today, the direction in which it is heading, and a reflection on the soul of what we do. Web design: a short-history So I have recently come to realise that I have been making websites for twenty years. The most…
5th March 2013. At home against Real Madrid, Manchester United led 1-0 on the night and 2-1 on aggregate, looking set for a Quarter Final place. On 56 minutes Nani is sent off for a dubious red card and Madrid went on to win 2-1 on the night (3-2 on aggregate) knocking Manchester United out of the Champions League. That evening sticks in my mind for two reasons. First, this was possibly the last…
Like many others I delighted to see Ash Sarkar s comeback to Piers Morgan last week regarding the Trump visit to the UK. Let s have it again Aside from a good laugh at seeing Morgan a serial pretender to the art of journalism being challenged on his own programme, it made me think about what Communism means in the twenty first century, especially in light of researching my great grandfather , a…
THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE LAST JEDI Last night I saw the latest instalment of the Star Wars nonalogy . I really enjoyed the Force Awakens and loved Rogue One so had high hopes for this film. However, like one of its main themes, I came away conflicted. A billion words will already have been written about the film but I wanted to get some of my thoughts down about how I read the film and…
According to Spotify I listened to 48,105 minutes of music in 2017. That s 800 hours or 30 days. A month of the year spent listening to music! Admittedly a fair bit of that was probably the kids (Imagine Dragon providing three of my top five songs a testimony to this!) but suffice to say there has been some great music in 2017. So here are some of my favourites from the year: 1. Public Service…
3,795 days and 88,956 status posts later I m tired. Over the years Twitter has been invaluable to me. I signed up in the summer of 2007 shortly after moving from archaeology to a job in web design/development. In those early days, feeling my way in a new career and working largely on my own, Twitter helped me to connect outside of my office walls; a digital water cooler. More importantly, it…
It was refreshing to see the rise of a socialist voice in the run up to our last snap election, a call back to the roots of Labour and a steer away from the centrist economics of New Labour. Watching Glastonbury last weekend one couldn t help but be moved and excited by the appetite for a new kind of politics and rhetoric, reinforced by the mantra: for the many, not the few. This is certainly an…
Well the public have spoken and after a manic couple of months since Theresa May called a snap election to massage her ego and solidify her mandate going into Brexit we have a reduced Conservative majority and a resurgent Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn. I have been involved in a local tactical voting campaign in Somerton & Frome that was sadly unsuccessful and whilst I revel in the reduced…
The last few weeks have been pretty busy. After a meeting held in Frome after the General Election was announced I ve been busy helping a bunch of passionate and enthusiastic people from a range of party affiliations in our constituency of Somerton and Frome to promote the only realistic chance of ousting our current Conservative MP : voting tactically for the Liberal Democrats. There have been a…
[1] Warning: this brain dump contains spoilers for Rogue One Earlier this week I took my son to see Rogue One when he was off school sick. I was hoping for a good film I m a big fan of Gareth Edwards previous offerings Monsters and Godzilla, and of course a massive fan of the original Star Wars films but I didn t have any particular expectations; especially as this was the first Star Wars film to…
I suppose it started when I spent a weekend in a monastery a couple of years ago . I remember needing a break from everything to clear the head. I had visited there as a teenager at a tough time in my life where I was rebelling against everything, including myself. Struggling with depression my wife had bought me a weekend in the monastic retreat outside Gloucester to try and solve some of the…
What a year! In 2015 I had three accidents (1 x broken clavicle, 1 x cracked rib, 1 x broken toe and 1 x broken ankle), I wrote a book , gave a conference talk, wrote a feature article for net magazine , started a Sass meet-up , had a 40th birthday, we had a fantastic family holiday, got a dog, did some Star Wars dataviz , organised a grunge evening, went to some fantastic gigs and Mud continues…
Traditional history history, one might say, one the scale not of man, but of individual men, what Paul Lacombe and François Simiand called l’histoire evenementielle, that is, the history of events: surface disturbances, crests of from that the tides of history carry on their strong backs. A history of brief, rapid, nervous fluctuations, by definition ultra-sensitive; the least tremor sets all it’s…
Next Saturday (7th Feb) after several months scheming me and local friend Matt are putting on a music evening at Frome s Westway Cinema raising funds for local charity, Alive and Well . A live band (Matt) and DJ (me) will be playing the best in grunge and alternative music from the late eighties and early nineties. Grunge was one of the first musical genres I discovered for myself and as a…
The social contract between the State and its people is broken. For thirty five years our government have chased the power of the coin over the wellbeing of its people. The people who govern are morally bankrupt and enough is enough. We are ruled by a minority of business interests as if business should be preferred over the welfare of an individual or the world we inhabit. There is enough wealth…
I gave a talk at Milton Keynes Geek Night last night about my experiences of depression as part of Geek Mental Help week . The slides and audio from my talk are posted below along with some brief notes. Our Industry First I want to talk about our industry. Why I think people that are prone to mental health problems are attracted to our industry and also the conditions within our industry that can…
Yesterday I learned of the tragic news that Chloe Weil had died. I m still in shock. I had only met Chloe a few times but considered her to be a friend and whenever our paths did cross I was always met with the biggest of smiles. I cannot begin to imagine the reasons behind somebody taking their own life. However as somebody who has been battling with depression for the last eighteen months I can…
It s almost thirty years since I first saw Manchester United play and so began a lifetime of following the men in red. For most of this time I have been extremely fortunate that we have enjoyed fantastic success under the expert tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson. And this year we find ourselves for the first time since Ron Atkinson contemplating a life at Old Trafford without the red-nosed Scotsman at…
It s that time of year again I m asking a bunch of questions about what freelancers working on the web today charge and how they work in a bid to help understand rates across the UK. This year I m asking a few questions about health and life style as I m particularly interested in the lifestyle of working freelance. So if you are a freelancer and can spare five minutes of your time please pop…
Am excited to announce that from mid-July I will be joining forces with Matt Powell at Mud as their technical director. At Mud I ll be overseeing the delivery of projects and working alongside Pete on front-end development and CMS work. It has been great to spend time with Matt over the last couple of months and discuss how we can collaborate to produce striking digital work. Having worked with…
Last month I wrote an entry on the Pastry Box about valuing your time. I ve been meaning to write a follow-up post looking at my monthly outgoings as a freelancer, how much they cost and why I pay for them. Office Rent £180/month Before moving to Frome late in 2011 I d been freelance for six months or so working from home. As I ve written before I had really struggled working from home and was…
A quick tip on removing the Daily Mail website from your life (Mac users only): Open terminal (⌘+space then type terminal ) In terminal type sudo nano /private/etc/hosts Enter your password when prompted After where it says fe80::1%lo0 localhost create a new line and type/paste the following: 127.0.0.1 www.dailymail.co.uk type ^+x (^ is the CTRL key) to exit, y to confirm and return to save If…
Last week saw the final teaching day of my first year as a tutor on the MA in Web Design and Content Planning at the University of Greenwich. I can t believe how quickly the last seven months have flown by. I was originally invited to help on the course after a chat with Prisca following my talk at Milton Keynes Geek Night last September. Having accepted the invite it has been a brilliant…
In late February 2011 I lost my job. I was given four days notice that the company I worked for was going into administration and that I would have to find new employment, or failing that work for myself. It was a terrible experience but it forced me into a position that I had been too scared to pursue when working: full-time freelancing. I d been doing bits of freelance work in my spare time for…
1993. Twenty years ago. Man that is a long time over half a lifetime in my case. 1993 was a coming of age year for me. It was a year of parties and experimentation; it was a year I put my studies on the back burner to focus on friendships and self-discovery. Like all seventeen year olds I can look back at being a bit of an asshole during this year especially to my parents but with hindsight this…