see nerd blog — 2016—pffft

The year began a couple of months after we moved to a new flat in a new town, when I was suffering from a potentially nasty disease. Well, we’re still here, and life continues. The flat’s more of a home than it was, but it’s no mansion.

The malady was declared cured in spring. Unfortunately, the medicine that cured me, an immune suppressant, suppressed my immune system, which is probably how a good number of my teeth roots got infected. In September, after a dentist had spotted the problem, I visited a clinic and left a little lighter. A side effect of that painful extraction is that I got to know the latest Deus Ex adventure rather well, and liked it.

During the year our old car threw its final wobbly, so we threw it. I bought a nice a new baby car, a wee thing that will never grow up.

The shock events of the year were, for me, political. I've long feared my home country would throw in the towel and give up, and it has done so. The UK is retreating from world engagement to drool by the seaside.

It’s as though my family is divorcing me. I have no choice but to move on. I have no intention of giving up my freedoms just because a bunch of self–righteous ignorant fantasists have pointed my country at irrelevance. That’s why my primary goal this year is to get ready to apply for Luxembourg nationality.

The election of Trump in the US has not helped. He presents himself as a reality–challenged plonker. I’ve no clue if he’s a liar or if he really does believe pixies made the world go warm, but he’s potentially very dangerous to many peoples’ lives. His childishness does not fill me with confidence. Still, he’s there, he’s surrounded by arrogant fantasists, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Artistically, the year was quiet but productive. The malady’s final hurrah did not help; it stopped me exhibiting. I shall return to that next year.

I have completed my project to rescan my photographs, and from that has grown damage, which, with reflets (finished towards the beginning of the year), is a massive image series. My second goal in 2017 is to do something with both of them.