Oh DAMN today I learned!!! Turn this UP youtu.be/-WkjCbxleQQ?...

Tonight will be the last night my dad spends with my mum. He goes to the care facility tomorrow. Dementia sucks.

Submitted a last minute Hail Mary to save a lovely Puriri tree from likely redevelopment (a.k.a. destruction). Too many trees have been departing the street. Maybe the Morepork that usually nest there each year will thank me.

Recently, in the supermarket, one of the songs playing in the background was Billy Joel's "The Longest Time." As I walked around getting my stuff, several other shoppers (including myself) were having quite a decent hum/sing-along to it. It's just that kind of song. youtu.be/a_XgQhMPeEQ

Frustrates me the way Instagram is going with all the back door shovelling of AI mining. I would love another site of similar appearance. If you happen to know one with a 'nonAI data scraping" ethos, I would love to hear about it. Cheers.

Awww man. No more Unicorn status for me! SADGE.

Farewell to the great Maurice Gee. His novels go on looking clearly at the world and introducing us to ourselves. www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3607...

My Emotional Support Lemon. 💛

Lutramania is an obsession with otters. A lutrinacy would be a society run by otters. Happy Otter Day. www.comedywildlifephoto.com

A perfect mood.

Caught up with the same kiddos again this weekend. To my delight, they'd glomped on to making spoon penguins themselves, and had set up a combat diorama just for me, inside the family's caravan! (I forgot to take a photograph of it 😭!) Extra praise for the rocket propelled ones taped to the ceiling.

GOOD MORNING POKEY yellow5.com/pokey

Post your favourite pink character. (Too easy! :D)

It brings me great joy to know that every so often, way over in the other side of the planet, Gurdeep is doing a happy dance. I like to think the good vibes could be detected from space. :D

Nothing brings a smile quite like being asked for ID for a small low-alcohol purchase - when you have been of 'legal drinking age' for more than 30 years, and are basically a middle-aged potato. 🥔

Dangerously addictive. My best score was 130 chickens, but I was never able to recreate that success

Again, for the people up the back!

... The Fuck? www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

THE DREAMS OF YOUTH yellow5.com/pokey

This is such a lovely tribute to Val Kilmer from Hilarie Burton ❤️

Awwww man. RiP Val Kilmer.

I am in scribbles of delight. POKEY (with a salient message!) - from that mysterious time when the internet was interesting - is on Bluesky??? HOORAY!!!

Without downloading any new pictures, where are you mentally?

Post your favourite Doctor Who, wrong answers only One must have a companion. Or four.

Planning* today for the niece & nephews' D&D-adjacent ongoing campaign, Penguins & Weasels. (With a slight chance of Elephants.) Hoping to hide these around the family's garden for them to discover after I leave! :D * - No plan survives contact with the children. This is known...

My piece in the latest issue of @nzgeo.bsky.social about artist Ray Ching and huia, taxidermy and obsession www.nzgeo.com/stories/a-bi...

Right, that’s enough wittering on the socials for now. Time to go and create some Level 1 Clean Dish(es) like a proper adult doing adulting tasks, adultly. And to try not to get distracted by a side quest.

Was recently reminded that I’d been meaning to start learning the Māori names of the stars that I already know. Living in Aotearoa (New Zealand), it seems fitting to do so, because I do enjoy triangulating my way around the night sky! #amateurastronomy www.pixieplots.co.nz/Maori-Star-N...

Woke myself up from the edge of sleep, doing the swipe up motion with my thumb, as if whatever I was thinking about, could be somehow moved on that way. Naturally I found my phone just to post this. All that remains now, is to flick through random posts until I fall asleep again. Peak 2025 loop.

I love a good nest watch, especially with raptor birdies! 💛

Learned that Adam Kreutinger passed away last week. A talented puppet maker, he was also instrumental in helping me make mine. He and his young family have been much in my thoughts, these past couple of years. My deepest sympathies to them, and to Adam, thank you for 'being'. puppetnerd.com

A birthday card for Leif - a dear friendo - because he is "a treasure"! Featuring - as is usually the case - #TheVSG (Very Smaul Gitt)!

... and because I am one of those nerdy types that will sometimes fact-check a pretty silly notion just in case there's a grain of truth to it, I discovered that we apparently DID have an extinct species along the flamingo line. Go us! :D www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/new-...

Seeing as most of the card receivers have theirs now (yes, the postal service has been that dire this year!), here's the Christmas Card from '24. Bonus: Birthday card done for my Dad. (Gore is his childhood town in New Zealand, that he still has memories of.) #traditionalart #illustration

Re-hoot with your Superbowl.

Me vs digital. As a little study challenge. Not my favourite medium, (mostly on a tactile/response level) but this time, instead of trying to force the stylus to behave like a RL brush, I leaned into Procreate's other strengths, with lumpy selection shapes on auto-fill and minimal redrawing!

Be kind to yourself. There is no sense in being mean to that cluster of neurons and bodily bits (even the wonky parts) for just existing. Be kind to yourself. Don't say cruel things about yourself, to yourself or anyone else - the Subconscious hears that and believes it. Be kind to yourself.

Incredible, all of this! And the moon, *chefs kiss*!

I had planned on being nowhere near social media today. But I think I also wanted to say something, because today has been a bit of an emotional wringer for me. This one's for you, Grandma. (It kinda just came out this way when I was messaging a friend.) She would have laughed, I think. :)

💛HUMAN ARTISTS, use one piece to convince people to follow you💛 It is not up to me to do the convincing. You either appreciate the effort of a small Caber aligning your macaroni upon the kitchen floor, or you do not.

Chair Stop-Motion 🪑💨 Made with 444 pictures taken over 10 days

I am insulted that January of this brand new year is already one third used! Like someone cheekily nabbing a slice of bread before closing the bag again and shoving it back on the "Ooh look, New Year" shelf. Ridiculous.

Halfway through making a new test card game today. Sometimes it be this way!

Me at 2 a.m. "Am going to try and go to sleep now." (Me at 4 a.m. in total darkness, singing "Never Gonna Give You Up" to Woodward's "Ding Dong Merrily on High". Several times. With Harmonies.) This is how I roll.

Yes okay it works youtu.be/66M8NwkRmew

Copyright exists for a reason. We were not allowed to "just use someone else's work" before AI came along. I think that " ©️ " should be accepted as Opting Out, by default. Because that's kind of what it already is.

FINALLY got started on the Xmas cards of 2024. (No thanks to the ineffable arse-ness of braining, and the too tired after work shenanigans or late!) No spoilers yet though! Instead, here's this morning's pre-dawn light from my window, and an older illustration whose colours it reminded me of. :)