new matching appearances

I have changed my look. By that, I mean the avatar I use to represent the half-wit entity ‘scribblans’, not my real life look.

I don’t think the real life me has a ‘look’. I have clothes, obviously, and in a wide variety of exciting colours, ranging from grey through to dark grey and black, but I don’t think any of them were bought because of their look. I normally favour an outdoorsy, functional type of clothing, where pragmatic practicality easily wins over any concern about what it looks like, or it being similar to what some deeply influenced person wears.

The main criteria for choosing jackets and trousers for example is pockets. And none of your decorative designer pockets that instantly become crammed full with the addition of just a couple of humbugs in them, or are actually, and very confusingly, not pockets at all when they have flaps with buttons made to look like there’s a pocket there. Proper pockets, in which you may secrete a fair amount of emergency sustenance, like whole packets of custard creams, or perhaps on occasion carry a small dog that’s tired of walking.

I am generally not particularly fond of the warmer seasons due to the vastly reduced load carrying capacity of the necessary thinner and lighter clothing. There are the ubiquitous cargo shorts of course — I try to avoid packing so much cargo that the hems suddenly gather about the tops of my feet like my trousers do — but I’d much rather it stayed cloudy and dull enough for wearing my army surplus jacket, with it’s two outside breast pockets, two inside breast pockets, massive front hip pockets left and right, and smaller fleece lined hand warmer pockets behind those.

You are never stuck for somewhere to put things.

Although you may be stuck remembering where you put things.

Have you have ever wondered why a British soldier wearing their Army issue jacket looks absolutely massive? Well, it’s mainly because they probably are, but also it’s because they also have a fair amount of the necessary soldiering kit about their person in those pockets. Plus a pencil in the upper left pencil pocket that is another small pocket attached to the front of the upper left breast pocket.

Why I need so many pockets is because, as a walking stick user, I don’t have a spare hand to carry things in when I’m walking with the dog. It’s easy for people (Hello Mrs S!) to forget that you can’t just “Hold this for me,” when you’re standing there with a dog on a lead in one hand and a stick holding you upright in the other, until the extended arms and well practised look of “With what exactly?” reminds them. And I need somewhere to carry poo bags, ball, treats, water, keys, etc., — and before you suggest a backpack, bear in mind that I am often already carrying a loaded camera outfit bag, and juggling hands and places to put things, like when you’re changing lenses on the go, can be quite a performance.

I have succumbed to letting my personal ‘fashion’ taste show in a small way though. My army surplus jacket, as well as being hellish heavy when fully loaded, is now ‘bespoke’ because I dyed it. I found the British army camouflage pattern greens too colourful, so, it is now a tasteful mixture of grey and darker grey. Perfect.

Anyway, I digressed a bit. Appearance.

I previously looked like this, which was scribbled by myself to literally represent a person with the scribblans name in a scribbly style, which is typically ‘high concept’.

But now I look like this, which has nothing to do with the scribbling, is of a man with a pipe when I don’t smoke, and has a large bushy beard which I wouldn’t get even if I didn’t shave for twenty years.

However, he is wearing a hat called a sou’wester, when I am from the sou’west… sorry, south west of the UK, and a lovely, warm-looking, big black coat, which I imagine has deep, voluminous, and numerous pockets, as deep and as dark as the mysterious seas upon which he sails…

Sorry, went all poetic for a moment.

I used the word matching in the title to indicate I am bringing my blog and social media visual identities into synchronisation — which is a verbose way of saying ‘I am using the same avatar in both places’.

As you might know, I have been on the Mastodon social network for a while now, and I am finding it entertaining and engaging, which has got to be a good endorsement from somebody as unsocial as me.

Unlike other social media I have tried and failed to ever enjoy being on, I suspect most of this is due to knowing there is no corporate or commercial profit imperative, directing their users to be spending their valuable attention in particular ways at all times to help sell advertising space. You simply see the posts on subjects you like by people you are following, with no impenetrable algorithmic numbers gaming getting in the way of what you want to engage with.

And don’t believe the general media who, with vested interests in you not leaving commercially exploitable social spaces they make money out of for one that can’t be, are making it out to be hard to understand.

It’s not. I’m on it. I rest my case.

Anyway, some people from there have been kindly visiting here — which has trebled the viewing figures, so I expect it to get in to two figures soon — and because this amply bearded, be-hatted and copiously coated chap is the picture I use as my avatar on Mastodon, I thought I’d use him here too, so there is some familiarity with the image that appears next to my name on comment threads etc. here for the whatever we call people who are visiting from there… Mastites… no… Mastodonians… Donnies… Oh, no… definitely not that… Enlightened persons anyway.

Good grief, are you still here?

Go out and go for a walk or something on this lovely day. I am now.

Cheers.