• Here’s a new follow along story in my Rudyard Kipling Just So retellings. Number five of eight. There’s more to come!

    When the Whale has eaten up every fish he can find, he meets the “Stute fish. Can the little fish escape the big Whale? And what happens when the Whale finds out that Man tastes nice?

    A fresh, new retelling of the classic Just So Story by Rudyard Kipling, who also wrote the Jungle Book over a hundred years ago.

    How the Whale Got His Throat has been re-written and illustrated to bring it up to date with more modern ideas, language and idioms while keeping all the essential fun, language and playfulness of the original.

    You can get the paperback or ebook from amazon with these links: In the UK https://amzn.to/3vTBq8F In the USA https://amzn.to/3mnRFrg In Canada https://amzn.to/3vTBG7D

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  • I have managed to avoid WhatsApp, though I am kept informed of family stuff through my wife’s account – which is sort of cheating, I suppose, but I’m not going to force my views on her.

    And what are my views?

    I think Facebook, and its other social media apps, present an existential threat to humanity. When I say it or write it like that, I guess I sound like a crazy guy shouting on the street corner. So be it.

    I was very early on the internet and all the predictions I made, that people said I was crazy for – YouTube, e-commerce, podcasting and much more – have all come about and all those nay-sayers are happily using the internet like it was always there.

    I feel like I’m ahead of the curve again.

    It’s not just that Facebook can sway elections and stir up genocidal conflict, it is the stated intent to develop a metaverse that alarms me. That sounds like a fascist state to me, and probably the early stages of the corporate wars to come – countries can easily become irrelevant.

    When you watch Star Wars and wonder where the Emperor Palpatine came from and how a Galactic Empire ever came about – the seeds are being sown today at Facebook.

    When, one day, Facebook swallows one of the space cowboys – amazon/Blue Origin or Space-Ex/Tesla, that will be the beginning of a Galactic Empire. Google or Apple will do the same and we’ll be facing a major catastrophe.

    That is, if Facebook doesn’t control the internet first and then finds itself vulnerable to attack – a monoculture like Facebook would be very vulnerable. as we saw a few weeks ago when it went down. To many around the world, Facebook already IS the internet.

    So, I have left Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.

    They have done very little for me in the past and I never really look at Facebook, just post automatically.

    It’s not easy to leave. They guilt trip you all the way, through many stages. And then, when you have finally committed, they park your account for a month – just in case you change your mind. That’s so easy to do – I know I tried to leave before.

    So I haven’t really left yet – my accounts are sat in limbo, while I sit and think about what a naughty boy I am and maybe have a change of mind.

    Not this time!

    I’ll let you know when it really happens.

    Added later: I can’t believe that Facebook should be so crass as to change the main company name to META today. It says it all to me.

  • Learn to draw a magic potion bottle with this easy to follow, spoken tutorial video. Find all the hundred’s of DrawStuffRealEasy drawing videos on one page by clicking here.

    This comes from my new book, How to Draw Halloween Stuff Real Easy
    Get the book or ebook from Amazon.co.uk – Amazon.com – Amazon.ca

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