Some sad news from Moorlands College, where I was a student from 1995-1997:
Dear Moorlands Graduate,
This email is coming to you because you are on our database as having been a student at the college during the time that Bill Cotton was on the faculty here. We had hoped to send this message before the weekend, but it was unfortunately delayed.
Bill had been suffering from cancer for a few months and died, peacefully and at home, last Wednesday night. The funeral is tomorrow (Tuesday 30th), at 11 a.m., at Bransgore Community Church, Shackleton Square, Bransgore, BH23 8NU. Gladys, Bill’s widow, wanted his former students to know of his death, and to know that any who would like to come to the funeral and thanksgiving service will be very welcome.
Martin Inchley
Bill Cotton was the Old Testament lecturer, Librarian and my tutor at the college. A group of about 10 of us were part of the ‘Cottons’, a group which, led by Bill, met for worship, social events and to go on missions. The photo below shows Bill and the Cottons on mission in Tenerife of all places:
Going clockwise around the table from left foreground: Bill, Andrew, Heidi, Malc, Dave Horton, Marco, Chris, Dave Walker, Phil, Bob, ?
Another picture, this time Bill with members of the tutor group as they graduated in 1998 (I was no longer there by then).
Anyway – very sad news. I hadn’t been in touch with Bill since being at Moorlands, but he was an important part of my time there and will be sadly missed.
Posted by Dave at 1:09 pm on March 29, 2010 and filed under Photographs.
Warning: If you have no interest in Twitter, the well known internet timewasting service, and Christianity, the well known religion, you will find this post dull and an utter irrelevance.
The Twurch of England is the Church of England on Twitter. The bishops, the clergy, and the… hang on… it’s only the bishops and the clergy! The laity (ordinary people) are nowhere to be found. This is an unjust state of affairs which sends out the message that the ordinary people are not as important as the bishops and clergy. Being mildly deeply upset about this I started a ‘Reform the Twurch’ campaign yesterday – you can read all of the tweets on the subject via the hashtag #reformthetwurch. It was great fun and a most creative protest. Proceedings were conducted calmly and peacefully, and from time to time nuns came out and brought us tea.
Of course there are other Anglicans not in the CofE, and other denominations of Christians who are also not a part of this group. I certainly think it would be good to include these people, although I understand that the ‘Twurch of England’ may not be the most appropriate banner under which to gather them. Perhaps there needs to be an ‘Anglican Twits’ (Anglicans who aren’t CofE) group, and one for ‘UK Twistians’ (UK Christians whether they are Anglican or not). I suspect forming a ‘World Christians’ group might be rather more time consuming.
My challenges to Twurch administrators (The Church Moose and Peter O) are as follows:
1) First of all I think you really need to include CofE laity if you are to go on calling it the Twurch of England. It’s OK, there aren’t many of us and we’re declining in number all the time.
2) Secondly, I understand that you may want to restrict membership of the Twurch of England to members of the Church of England. However, if you don’t find a way to include the wider groups of people (Anglicans, UK Christians) in some way I suspect someone else will. There is an opportunity for a creative individual to form the Anglican Twitter community or the Christian Twitter community, and sooner or later someone will do so.
The picture above has nothing to do with this post by the way. I just didn’t have anything else to put in.
Now… stop trying to distract me – I’ve got work to do. My big important project went a bit better yesterday, for which I am thankful.
After yesterday’s highs come the lows of the big important project not going very well. To be honest the computer not functioning is not one of the reasons (though me not functioning is). In truth I’m just posting this cartoon because it was scanned and ready to go. It was originally to accompany an in-depth post on the pros and cons of Mac ownership, given that I bought mine a year ago. I shouldn’t be seen to be wasting time in such ways this week though, so I will desist.
Hope everyone is having a good week. See you here in the same place for more non-achievement tomorrow.
When I walk through the valley of the shadow of the dearth of cartoon inspiration (sorry…) I sometimes need a little encouragement to lift my spirits. Fortunately such a boost occurred yesterday, when I was described by the Telegraph’s Blog Editor Damian Thompson as “the world’s worst cartoonist”. Had he described me as “a mediocre cartoonist” or “a cartoonist of comparatively little merit” it would have stung somewhat, but “the world’s worst cartoonist” is something worthy of being embossed on a plastic keyring, or, as I shall do in due course, written proudly on a blog ‘about’ page, particularly when it comes from such a source.
So how did such an accolade come to be awarded? To quote Damian Thompson’s Twitter message in full:
I have incurred the particular wrath of the world’s worst cartoonist, @davewalker, who jottings decorate the Church Times.
The description of “wrath” was not terribly accurate, but I think he was a little bit cross about a Twitter post of mine.
Please RT: Never supported @earthhour before, but planning to do so just to irritate @holysmoke http://www.earthhour.org/
This was in response to Damian’s post on his Telegraph blog in which he attempted to encourage people to waste as much electricity as they can by turning on all of the lights in their houses during ‘Earth Hour’, a symbolic campaign encouraging people to consider using less electricity. You can read the post in question here: Switch ON your lights for ‘Earth Hour’, 8.30pm, March 27. I think that the fact that my message had been “retweeted” by quite a number of people was the ultimate cause of the grumpiness and grand pronouncement.
Damian Thompson is regarded as something of a figure of fun within Anglican circles. He is one of those people who is unwittingly an evangelist for those things he tries so hard to oppose (Liberals, people who care about the environment, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, Ruth Gledhill, etc etc) owing to the way he tries to make his points. You don’t need me to tell you why – reading his blog will make it evident very quickly. As I said to someone yesterday, if I’m ever in doubt about what I think on an issue I just look up Damian Thompson’s opinion and know I should think the opposite.
Anyway, all most enjoyable, and something that has given me a little bit of a boost during a busy deadline week. Talking of which, I must get back to it. Please excuse a scarcity of blog posts over the next seven days or so.
I was clicking around the internet, and the next thing you know have booked to go to the Spring Harvest Christian seaside conference in Skegness, April 11-16 (Week ‘two’ to those in the know).
Anyone else going? Lets meet up! I don’t know if I’ll be blogging or cartooning or anything. I might just draw huge diagrams in the shingle on the beach that will be washed away by the incoming tide, thereby demonstrating their ultimate futility.
[Cartoon originally posted on the Church Times Blog sometime around here, when I did my in-depth analysis of being at the event.]
“I NOTICED that the doormat was at a slightly crooked angle. I reached down and moved the mat back into its correct place.” Thus began a recent entry on The dullest blog in the world. Although this publication is something of a satire on the internet’s inane blogs, scientists are finding—to their surprise—that useful information can actually be mined from the tedium of the blogosphere.
*Warning: Dull post. Do not read if you came here to be interested or amused.*
I am aware that I ask for technical help (usually on Twitter) several times a day, but I am taking a liberty and doing so once more.
This time it is not for me and my blessed Mac, but for a family member’s PC computer which I am attempting to make work this weekend. If I can do so I will get superb numbers of brownie points and will generally be regarded as some kind of hero.
Here is a summary:
Problem: Can’t surf the internet / do e-mail.
Details:
Computer is a quite old Evesham one running Windows XP
Modem appears to connect to the internet, but no data is actually received.
On the modem (Voyager 105) Power and DSL lights are on, Data light isn’t.
ISP is Supanet if that is of any relevance. They say the connection should be working. They also cost 50p a minute to chat to.
It worked until a few weeks ago, then stopped. Unfortunately I wasn’t here at the time, so I don’t know whether anything odd was done to it.
AVG free is running, as is Windows Firewall. Disabling either or both makes no difference.
So, what I’m wondering is (a) any thoughts what the problem might be? (b) how would I go about making a diagnosis and, all being well, fixing it?
Normally I’d do copious Googling, but I’m connecting via a dongle on a netbook and too much internetting is a bit awkward.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
Posted by Dave at 11:52 pm on March 5, 2010 and filed under My problems, Technical.
I have minor regrets about this cartoon as it has given the ‘I hate bishops – they can do nothing right’ brigade who loiter on Anglican blogs something to jump up and down about.
On the other hand blogger Matt Wardman says: “Sorry, Dave – not as well judged as usual in my view”. To blogger Matt Wardman I say that normally I do not knowingly judge things that well, I just draw the first thing that comes into my head. Also I am asking a question about the activities of the bishops and was not prejudging the answer to that question. I am perfectly prepared to accept that they had more important things to be doing if that turns out to be the case. Bishop David Walker, whom I have great respect for (not least because he is my namesake and has done much to make the wearing of sandals acceptable in polite society), says that “most bishops are relaxed about the Ali amendment” and I can understand why that might be the case.
PS. I bet some idiot will try to register pectoralcrosses4u.com.
This is the second video I have posted this week. Blogger Scott Gunn was frowning after the posting of the first one, so this second one might tip him over the edge.
Pringle of Scotland has commissioned artist David Shrigley to create a humorous short animated film about life behind-the-scenes at Pringle to celebrate the brands return to Milan Fashion Week
[Warning: probably not suitable for children]
I am a great David Shrigley fan, although I must warn those of a sensitive disposition that some readers may find some of his work not to their liking.
I don’t normally post these kinds of things, but this made my morning.
The official video for the recorded version of “This Too Shall Pass” off of the album “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky”. The video was filmed in a two story warehouse, in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. The “machine” was designed and built by the band, along with members of Synn Labs ( http://syynlabs.com/ ) over the course of several months.
Dave Walker's blog. Dave is a freelance cartoonist who draws a weekly 'Guide to the Church' for the Church Times. (
Posted by Dave at 1:09 pm on March 29, 2010 and filed under Photographs. 
