11 October 2001 (box of crap treasure # umpteen)

You may remember on 5 January I mentioned I had found a box of crap which included a 'diary' from 11 October, 2001. It was actually a little disingenuous/lying to call it a diary as it is actually only five pages, and all relating to only one day - 11 October, 2001. I thought about typing it out, but decided it was better for you to read it as written. This also means I don't have to read it (and I am not tempted to add or subtract anything). By the time you read this, these pages will have been recycled comprehensively into something useful. 

For a little context, Mia and I (and Andrew and Ellen) were heading off to the US to tour with our band Huon. Then September 11 'happened' and I guess we were uncertain about whether we would go at all, and then we decided we would, and we did. This must have been me recording activities leading up to that time, well obviously it was, but I mean it was because of that. I was very close to completing my PhD, I think. 

i really just don't know (box of crap)

So you remember the big box of crap? I got to a certain level in it and I was like, OK that'll do (pig). But today I was a bit gripped by a checkout fever, for instance, I threw away a few jumpers that 'the cat' had clawed up (they were old anyway) and some shirts and shoes, etc, into the brotherhood bin. Then I thought I'd tackle the box of crap a bit more, and found a lot of (bizarre!) blank A4 paper, and a bunch of unopened mail (bank statements, etc) from about ten years ago, and old train tickets and receipts - all very throwawayable even if they hadn't been on that thermal paper that rendered them virtually unreadable. Anyway then I found the above - the complete layout of a comic book with two stories, one by me (done in, lol, MacPaint or something similar) and one by Gregory Mackay I am a bit blown away that I actually got Gregory to donate or create something especially for a comic book... it's very cool. But did I ever publish the fucking thing? Seriously did I? There must have been some copies but then what happened? This comic book has everything but a front cover. I must burrow down into the crap a little more and maybe a finished version will be there. I should print it up and make it the only thing available on a website. That would be hilarious. 

By the way those Fastidious Frog comics totally wrote themselves, which was a bit scary really.  
 

box of crap - treasure # 2

 

A big thing in the box of crap turned out to be this folder with an early draft of what was to become my 2016 book Dig. I do not seem to have dated this draft but clearly I went to the trouble of printing it out and putting the holes in it so I could have it in this pseudo-book form presumably to read it and make notes on, though I don't seem to have done so (alternatively perhaps I prepared it for someone else to read a draft - I did that a bit early on). Whatever. For some reason I kept this and now I am going to put it in the recycling. Holus bolus. 

The book by the way has yet to set the world on fire, but time will tell of course, and the world is looking very flammable of course. 

box of crap - treasure #1

The box of crap included a sketchpad with almost all the pages torn out, except this beginning of a comic strip. 

box of crap

 

This is a box of crap, retrieved from under the house at Lorraine and sure to be a rich and fermented walk down memory lane. I have already uncovered a kind of diary from October, 2001 which I will reveal to you on its 20th anniversary. There are other interesting things in there too as well as some uninteresting things. I have a feeling a lot of the interesting things are along the lines of 'isn't it interesting that I bothered to keep this completely non-interesting item?!' More shortly.