Give me a Y!
Give me an A!
Give me a D!
Give me an I!
Give me an R!
Give me an F!

What does that spell?

YADIRF!

What does that mean?

Time for another fabulous newsletter!

These Days …

Tomorrow the Seattle Post Office is moving the start time for all its carriers from 7 am to 7:30. The Union has filed a grievance and hopefully we’ll get our start times moved back again. We had that new Seattle Postmaster drop by our station on Wednesday to introduce himself and one of the questions a carrier asked was why he was moving the start times. His answer didn’t make a lot of sense to me. It seemed to be that, because we were handing less mail now than in previous years, we …

That’s where his explanation stopped making sense. He talked about route adjustments and how when he was a carrier he used to have so much mail he’d have to leave some of it undelivered on a regular basis. We have less mail but we’re allowed an hour in the office to set up our route and if it takes longer than an hour we’re supposed to use “street time” and …

If we have less mail it seems like we could actually start earlier? Like at 6:30? We started at 6:30 ten years ago when I started working for the Post Office.

The fellow emphasized that we carriers need to do our job safely so we can come home to our loved ones. Yet by moving our start times he’s making it more likely that, especially once Daylight Savings is inflicted on us, we’ll be delivering mail in the dark. Often on unfamiliar routes because we’re being mandated to work overtime.

Tellingly, during his speech, the Postmaster said something like, “We all love the Post Office, don’t we?” This was clearly a prompt for us to applaud, cheer and huzzah. He got resounding silence. I will give him credit. He didn’t pause his speech for us to react after that. He soldiered on, saying that we loved to be able to provide for our families and give service to our community.

I was neither impressed nor especially disappointed by him. He came across as a guy who thought that the current rules were good and that they should be followed. Questions weren’t encouraged. I have some sympathy for management at the PO. They’ve been tasked with making the USPS, an organization that is not and should never have been designed a business, into a profitable business without being given the resources and autonomy to do so. Those above them demand that they make the carriers and their stations hit a set of numbers that are based on a fantasy of an efficient organization that has all the resources it needs to do its job. We, the carriers and the clerks, have contempt for management because we know that the number they want us to hit are bullshit.

I’ll save further complaints for another day.

Cats!

I’ve just about finished my illustrations for the update of Cathulhu. Since I’m waiting to show those off until Sixtystone Press makes it available, this morning I’m showcasing some more of my illustrations from Tails of Valor, Golden Goblin Press’s scenario book follow up to Cathulhu. These are from the adventure –

Triumphus Felis Ferae (set in 41 C.E. Rome) by Jeffrey Moeller
First the vermin became scarce, and then kittens and cats began wandering off, never to be seen again. Later, people began acting strangely, disobeying the Praetorian Guards and attempting to enter the Imperial Palace. Then the Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (known to later history as Caligula) himself vanishes, leaving the city teetering on the edge of utter chaos. Can a band of brave and proud Roman street cats solve this mystery, and restore order to the Empire? Triumphus Felis Ferae is Latin for “the triumph (all march) of the wild cat” or more simply, Stray Cat Strut.

All of the illustrations in Tails of Valor were published in black and white. Oscar Rios, the publisher, commissioned me to color one of the illustrations as a present for Jeffrey Moeller.

It’s a Mad Mad Mouse (Process GIF)

The art I do is for amusement. My own. Hopefully yours. Hopefully people I’ve never met.

A lot of the art I’ve created in the last couple of years I did with a thought toward putting it on something – a mug, a t-shirt, a poster – and making it available for sale. The image below was made with that in mind. Sooner or later, when I have my own POD shop, I will put it on something, if only for a short time.

Until then, it’s only getting posted as fan art. Because one does not rattle the doors of the House of Mouse. Next year, in 2024, the version of Mickey Mouse as depicted in the silent cartoon “Steamboat Willie”, will enter public domain. Mickey Mouse will continue to be a character trademarked by the Disney Corporation. Copyright is limited. Trademark can be forever. I could argue that the design below is a parody and therefore this depiction is fair use. I could argue that, as long as I don’t market the thing as a version of Mickey, I’m not trying to infringe on Disney’s trademark.

But, honestly? I did this for the fun of it, not to throw rocks at the windows of the Mouse’s fortress.

M! I! C! K! E! Y!

M-O-U-S-E!

Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em.

And that’s it for this week.

May the next seven days treat you well. May you get the rest you need and may you have some fun and experience some joy.

Cheers!