Photo: “A Page of the Tuesday Funnies Used to Wrap a Mason Jar at the Thrift Store”. The San Diego Union-Tribune. (February 2025)

Gleaning for vintage supplies at the local thrift store, I made out with an assortment of cream coloured typewriter papers weathered by age from card stock cotton ...

In designing a good villain character there's a wide range of paths one can follow. From the grandiose villains that want to take over the world and live in volcano islands, waiting for the hero to fall into their elaborate death trap to humanized villains with complex backstories that ...

I love a character in an ensemble cast that runs counter to the rest of the people around them.

Really, it's the best way to make a character stand out. The one who has some kind of contrast to everyone else, in terms of their priorities, or beliefs, or ...

So you might have a character that's generally very calm or stoic. They may appear weak, or just not intimidating. They may be the right gender, class, age, or any other parameter for their peers to assume they are easy pickings and thus a great target for harassment. Initially ...

Every year our family are gifted a very nice calendar from one of our relatives. However, it often arrives a couple of months into the year. So, I'm usually tasked with whipping up a temporary couple of months to pin to the door to use until it arrives.

This ...

Black Tiger, also known as Rico Ramirez is an excellent vigilante and a high school zombie slacker. Rico can be found using super human senses while investigating crime scenes alongside the police. The late nights and difficult-to-stomach nature of the crimes committed have become Rico’s priority and dreams of ...

Watch. It advances. A blended eye to the one true contact.
Delicate, pristine night of visible disguise
Hear. It enlightens. A stuttered word to the one true conduct
Eloquent, redeemed might of audible delight
Feel. It entices. A torpid touch to the one true contract
Adequate, esteemed rite of physical ...

I'm having to write a short speech to give at a friend's memorial service next month, and I'm finding it difficult. It's not the words that I'm struggling with, it's more the entire concept of what I'm doing. So, as a distraction from ...

There is nothing more humbling against human hubris than Nature herself.

Even at humanity's peak expansion, technology, sophistication, education, or intelligence, all it takes for its eradication is for the earth to sneeze in just the right way.

Nature cannot be beaten or tamed. It can only be appeased ...

Geoffrey Thurgood says, “few people recognize or understand the most important moment of their lives while it is happening to them”, while reminiscing about the first encounter with his wife, Tixiannalol. The meeting was love at first sight for the orphaned, bookish apprentice of Professor Scroggins, who admired Tixi’s ...