Just to say (for those who aren’t fed up of me going on about it) that I’ll be blogging from the G20 meeting in London’s Docklands over the next few days. Details here.

Barring technical malfunction (not out of the question by any means) I’ll be blogging in these two places:

1. The Church Times blog
2. On my Twitter page

As I’ve said on my Church Times blog post if you have any questions for world leaders I’d be glad to have them. I may well not get the opportunity to ask them, but you just never know.

Posted by Dave at 9:23 pm on March 31, 2009 and filed under Blogging, Current events.

1 Comment

Some people told me that one of my diagrams was on the front page of the digg website over the weekend. Here is a link to the page about it: Link to the page about it.

The comments are not very kind as you can see. I was wondering where the unkind people gather – perhaps it is on the digg website.

Posted by Dave at 9:29 pm on March 29, 2009 and filed under Mundane.

15 Comments

[Click on the image for the full sized version]

I’m a bit overwhelmed by things at the moment, and realise that I am rather behind on e-mail replies, telephone calls, invoices, things I’ve promised people and whatnot. I’ll try to do some catching up in the next day or so. In the meantime, apologies.

Posted by Dave at 10:41 am on March 24, 2009 and filed under Cartoons.

8 Comments

I’ve really enjoyed all of your competition answers – thank you.

Kennedy Fraser got the answer right, although most of you were winners too with your entertaining answers. Here’s the widget in its final resting place:

The widget was the piece I was missing to make the gears work on one of my bicycles, hence the joy. Unfortunately the gears still do not work properly as I am not very good Sturmey Archer adjuster.

The bicycle is my circa 1976 Raleigh Twenty Stowaway folding bicycle. I bought it from eBay for about £43.

It is one of two and a half folding bikes I own (the half is a scrap raleigh twenty which I’m using for parts). It does not fold very well, but I plan to use it when I go places and want to lock a folding bicycle outside. I quite like the challenge of bringing the old fashioned granny shopper bike back into vogue. Other people have done so in far more convincing ways – see Sheldon Brown’s Raleigh Twenty page, and in the UK Littlepixel’s one.

I have a more sophisticated folding bike about which I might write more another time. I am a great believer in folding bicycles – see for example this post and some of the ones in my cycling category. I will perhaps write more about how I believe folding bicycles can save the world at some other point if anyone shows the mildest bit of interest.

Posted by Dave at 9:24 am on March 20, 2009 and filed under Cycling, Photographs, Quizzes and competitions.

4 Comments

I have used my electric computer scanner and pasted together a copy of my Baptist Times interview in an adequate but not particularly professional way. This readable version is here (large jpeg image file, 800 or so kb, click again on downloaded image to enlarge, click back button to get back here).

Those who just want the general gist without the words can look at this picture:

As you can see I look like a model for a clothing catalogue. Actually that is my day job, but I have kept it quiet for fear of reprisals.

Thanks to Graham for sending the newspaper so promptly.

Posted by Dave at 11:00 pm on March 18, 2009 and filed under Cartooning, Interviews.

Comments Off

This tiny widget arrived in the post today and I was overjoyed. I bought it on eBay for £1.49. It is a bit smaller than the photograph.

A small and reasonably pointless competition: You just have to explain in the comments (1) what my small widget is and (2) why I was overjoyed. There are no prizes except to feel slightly pleased with yourself for a short amount of time.

Wrong but interesting answers will be winning answers too.

Posted by Dave at 8:08 pm on March 18, 2009 and filed under Photographs, Quizzes and competitions.

27 Comments

I’ve just added five new cartoons to the main CartoonChurch site. They are free to look at, or if you’d like to publish them in church literature and other such places, licences are available.

I have added some of these to the Facebook page too and will be adding the last couple in the next day or two. I don’t want to overwhelm Facebook users with too much excitement all at once.

The new cartoons are as follows:

1. Church architecture How congregation members resemble it
2. Fixtures and fittings that you may have observed during the services
3. The Laity How to recognise them
4. The organ recital We have good news to share
5. After-service coffee This is the time when newcomers can get to know the congregation

Posted by Dave at 1:25 pm on March 17, 2009 and filed under Cartoons, Church, New CartoonChurch cartoons.

3 Comments

A month or so ago I was interviewed by the Baptist Times. The article appears in the latest edition, published last Thursday.

I haven’t read the interview, so I don’t know what I said. It was a very enjoyable interview, so I might have relaxed too much and said something outrageous. The issue of the paper itself is here where the front cover can be seen and a thumbnail of the article page (right). It can be ascertained that I am pictured in front of a wall on which I have drawn a large cartoon, and I am scratching my chin or adjusting my collar. The Baptist Times website is here. I recommend it for Baptist news.

I’ll hopefully be sent a copy at some point, but if any Baptists reading have an unwanted one lying around then let me know. If you need it to line the cat tray I can send you a copy of the Basildon Recorder in exchange. If I get a chance I’ll buy the paper of course, but Christian bookshops have largely abandoned South East Essex meaning a trip into central London to find one. I’m unlikely to do so before Friday, by which time it will be last week’s news.

Update: Someone has kindly offered to send me the paper, so I’m no longer in need of one. Thanks for various offers.

Posted by Dave at 9:29 pm on March 16, 2009 and filed under Cartooning, Interviews.

2 Comments

I was searching online for a small bicycle thingummy-whathaveyou, and came across this on a bicycle shop website: Workshop sweepings approx 250g bag (£4.99). It is described thus:

A 1/2lb (approx) mixed bag of nuts, bolts, washers and other bits that have fallen onto our workshop floor during bike builds/repairs.

I was wondering whether there might be any scope for selling bags of my studio sweepings. A typical bag might contain:

• Eraser dust
• Pencil sharpenings
• Cat hair
• Discarded post-it notes
• Scrap paper with scribbles on it
• Very small denominations of useless currency
• The occasional apple core
• Clothes hangers (they seem to get everywhere)

If there is a demand I will start to bag it up into 250gram portions. It might take a while for me to get 250 grams-worth together (unless apple cores feature heavily) so an orderly queue might have to be formed.

The idea might catch on of course, and others of you might start to bag up 250g packs of your sweepings. We could swap them between ourselves and try to get a whole set. There would be websites, magazines, conventions etc.

If you think this is a rubbish idea do say.

Posted by Dave at 7:34 pm on March 15, 2009 and filed under Sundry posts, Utter nonsense.

8 Comments

I have received an e-mail asking for a quote for a Church lectern / podium:

Good Morning,
I am Rev,Ben Johnson and i contact to know if you sell Lecterns/Podiums….Can you get me a quote for the specifications below

Podiums:
(7) pieces
Acrylic &Aluminum Podiums.
Podiums
large 23 5/8″W x 19 7/8″D
Clear Z-Shaped Podium
Acrylic Lecterns
3/4” thick

what would be the total cost plus tax.Advice the method of payment you accept.Hope to hear from you soon.Have a nice day…

Rev,Ben Johnson

I’ve had e-mails asking for information about lecterns and pulpits before – see Cartoon Blog: Various pulpit news.

As I have been given full particulars including dimensions and materials I will, if time allows, go out to the garage this afternoon and construct the requested items using my saw. If anyone else would like a podium or lectern let me know and I will knock together a couple more while I’m at it.

Posted by Dave at 12:16 pm on March 13, 2009 and filed under Utter nonsense.

14 Comments

A small announcement of interest to those who use the Facebook internet website: CartoonChurch.com now has a ‘page’. If you need to find it in a hurry just remember this address: http://www.facebook.com/pages/CartoonChurchcom/134147785593

I posted it today as Facebook has redesigned its homepage, although not everyone can see it yet. For various uninteresting technical reasons launching a Facebook page is now a worthwhile thing for someone with a website a bit like this to do, so I have done it.

I have added some cartoons to the page, but at the moment there is nothing on there that you will not find here, although clicking through the cartoons on Facebook is a bit quicker than on this site, especially if you are good with a mouse.

I will perhaps add some exclusive content to the Facebook page to make it really exciting. Perhaps an unseen-until-now photograph taken in my office. Maybe of my pencil case or something like that. The possibilities are endless.

Posted by Dave at 10:27 pm on March 12, 2009 and filed under Cartooning, Technical.

2 Comments