"The black snot thing ends immediately north of EN6"

 Oh, shit!  Is it my go?  

 Yes!

 Where's the rota?  Is it really my go?  I'm not ready!

 Oh, for fu-  Here, do one of Jon's laziest most efficient-type posts:

Nine common problems that can be solved by moving the f**k out of London

CAN’T afford a house? Can’t afford a meal out? Travelling six miles takes two hours and costs you £40? Have you considered getting the f**k out of London?

No affordable rents: With the capital full of other young professional housemates stealing your shampoo, have you considered living outside it? In provincial towns like Chorley and Sleaford where rent is low? They’ve got electricity and tapas, allegedly. 

No nightlife options: Restaurants and nightclubs in London are famous and famously expensive. Restaurants and nightclubs in the rest of the country are less so, and often called things like The Wheatsheaf Grill or Zanzibar’s, but you can go to them.

No affordable transport: A system of underground trains in a major city is expensive. Getting the bus in Barnsley is not. Riding a bike in Wrexham is practically free. And have you considered walking to work in Warrington? It can be done, crazy as it sounds.

Overcrowding: It’s impossible to find a patch of London park not commandeered by boot camp fitness twats, rowdy bored-shitless teenagers or mums playing ‘here we go round the Mulberry bag’ for a two-year-old’s party. Could it possibly be because there’s too f**king many of you in the same place?

No time to see friends: Lengthy commutes, long working hours and spiralling service costs mean that even in the same city, you only see friends on Zoom. Are you getting it yet? That the city is a nightmare and you could just piss off somewhere nicer?

Gentrification: Be the gentrifier. Take your fancy arsehole graduate job and go and gentrify Ashton-under-Lyne. All it actually means is buying a cheap house and making the area more pleasant. Is that so evil, or are your values horrendously warped?

Pollution: You know the black snot thing ends immediately north of EN6, don’t you? You sneer when your provincial friends come down and complain about it? Then what’s stopping you moving to Staffordshire? Fear of big cats?

I’ll never get on the property ladder: No, you f**king won’t. Nor will you ever buy in Manhattan, Tokyo or Sandbanks, so have you considered living somewhere you can afford like normal people do?

I can’t talk about anything but living in London: This one is absolutely solved after six months in Stafford after which you will, finally, get over yourself. Unless you move to Cornwall or the Cotswolds. It’s still the sole topic of conversation with the refugees there.

 

The Daily Mash 

Of course.

The Sunday Blogger Club and other stories

 As I seem incapable of putting together any of the blog posts that have been lurking at the back of our mind recently, here is a quick update on some of the books and doujinshi manga we've read recently instead.  

 

 I stopped reading Smoke and Mirrors as it was too miserable and grim.  To help the Host get over it, while I was waiting in the Cusp departure lounge for my portal home, I picked up a copy of The Sunday Blogger Club.  But only because it came with a free blogging rota.

 You see, I've been on a "business trip" Over the Cusp;  The Very Mistress took to her fainting chaise in 1973 and has barely been seen since;  Jon is on holiday and jetting off to Amsterdam or somesuch;  Maddie seems to have only just got back and she's off again;  Mago managed a Sunday Music on Saturday - No, not the following one, Saturday before - which has thrown us all for a loop;  And Ms Scarlet emigrated from Wordpress to Blogger and now needs a prompt to get her going!

 Yes, I think that rota will come in very handy.

 

 Anyway.  Back to the reading material:

 A Fine Life - The story of a nascent witch whose unwanted commitments and obligations are arranged away by an unseen imp.  Although the witch is vaguely aware of the imp and its interventions, they do not know the full extent of the imp's arrangements and the subsequent consequences wreaked upon their friends and family.  Although, they are beginning to suspect.

 

 The Furtherest Ones - A collection of tales of unobtainable love and inappropriate lust in a beautiful but terrible land beyond the reach of mere mortals.  One such tale is about a sea spirit who yearns to touch the sun, even knowing that should it be possible, they'll evaporate.  They are teased by the Moon, and are drawn to him as a tide, but the Moon always releases them before they can overcome their world's gravity and join the Sun and the Moon as they dance together in the sky.

 Spindle: Wind the Thread Around Xem - A book about how to structure and write novels of the classic Karskat genre.  It's a bit awkward - translated as it is from ancient Andorii.

 Star Trek Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier, by Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann

 This is my first Trek book purchase for a LONG time.  And I only got it because it was a fiver instead of £35!

 I've only had time to flick through it so far, and seems not as comprehensive or detailed as I'd like, but it does have some wonderful concept art and gorgeous photographs.  My favourite Trek film, STIII: The Search For Spock appears to be well served with a good covering of the civilian clothing and Vulcan garments. 

 Definitely worth £5.

 T.S.D. Master of Poison Radio Wave and other selected manga of Dokudenpa Jushintei, by Kobucha Omaso. 

 Some of these tales of young men coming to terms with their sexuality and dealing with first love/lust are very dear and quite charming.  They're illustrated with adorable looking young men sporting perfect bodies and seemingly endless reserves of energy - which ends up being used for a LOT of gleefully drawn, enthusiastic sex!  But that's only a part of it - it's the emotional stuff that's most important, of course.

 Only a few are translated into English, and even that's rather hit-and-miss, but it's quite fun to imagine what's going on and what the characters are saying.  (I've run a few through Google Translate images and that's even more hit-and-miss, but I get the gist)

 Oh, and there are some that are definitely not my cup of tea, such as the ones with chibi or too young looking characters, and the ones with tentacles (I just don't get it).

 

Danger: RUDE!  For the gentlemen who prefer to travel up the chocolate escalator or are a receiver of swollen goods*, and anyone else who may be curious, click here for T.S.D. vol.1.  And once you're there, I'd recommend right-clicking any link to open in a new window - even if only clicking to the next page - to prevent unwanted video sex websites opening.  I use Firefox which blocks most pop-ups, but doesn't seem to catch them all on the linked to BaraMangaOnline site.

* Thank you, Derek: