The Basics
Who are you?
Just a plain old suburban dad who likes to spend the rare moments of peace he gets doing hobby things and writing.
A Blog, Isn’t that a bit old fashioned?
Sure. But I’m old enough to remember the Internet was full of blogs and forums, and I lived through the transition where the internet dwindled down to a handful of social media sites1. It was easier, but slowly we lost the vitality and individuality in favour of chasing viral success. And that was before we started seeing those sites becoming a blatant tool of influence for their owners.2
That older, more vital internet was a healthier place. So let’s just say I’m doing my part to help bring back some of the good things we lost. Let’s burn down the silos and re-wild the internet.3, 4
Games & Minis
What Kind of Minis do you Paint?
Whatever takes my fancy. I have a rather large “pile of potential” to pull from, so I tend to grab whatever suits my mood. That can range from fantasy to sci-fi.
How do you choose your next project?
Usually by what strikes my fancy – I tend to go with whatever seems interesting to me at the time.
This does tend to mean I often jump back and forward between projects. But my main goal with my hobby time is to give myself a mental break, so I’m not bothered if an army takes longer to be completely painted.
What Games Do You Play?
At the moment the gaming side of things is still aspirational. I have minis painted up for Battletech, Stargrave and Hell Dorado, and a much larger queue of many more. But since I barely get time to paint, I certainly don’t get time to play (at least not yet, maybe when the kids get older)
For now I’m content to enjoy the painting, it provides a nice quiet break in an otherwise very busy life.
Do you take Commissions?
Nope, but I’m flattered you think my work is worth paying for.
More seriously – this is my hobby and it’s a thing that I do primarily because it benefits my mental health. I’m not interested in trying to monetize it as nearly all approaches to making money from your hobbies compromise on the mental health benefits.5
Social Media
Why Mastodon?
I left Twitter in 2022, and one of my main observations after coming to Mastodon was that it was missing something I hadn’t realised I hated.
There was less of the attention seeking/algorithm gaming behaviors that had become so normalized. Instead, more people just interacting as people.
It’s refreshing to escape social media as a contest and get back to social media just being about being social.
Why Pixelfed?
Because it’s got the same things going for it as Mastodon, and it works well for sharing pictures of my hobby projects.
Why aren’t you on X/Twitter?
Because you won’t find me in a shithole. 6,7
Why aren’t you on Instagram?
Because even though Meta isn’t quite as toxic as X, they’re still a social media silo. Why would I want my content to add value to them, when it can be helping to revive a free and open internet.
Why aren’t you on BlueSky?
Because I like Pixelfed and Mastodon more and can’t be bothered with the popularity contests that algorithm driven social media tend to create.
If you really want to follow me from Bluesky, I have bridged my Mastodon and Pixelfed accounts using Bridgy Fed. You can follow me that way, but do be aware that I’ll probably never see any responses you post unless your Bluesky account is also bridged back to the Fediverse.
I’m not interested in joining Mastodon/Pixelfed, how can I follow your work?
Allow me to introduce you to an elegant tool from a more civilised age: Really Simple Syndication (RSS).
Simply plug the RSS feed from this site into your feed reader of choice and it can notify you whenever I post something new.
You could even take a look at my blogroll to look for some other worthy blogs to follow (or even just bulk import the lot using the OPML export).
Do you really think this blog can impact Meta / X?
On its own, no, of course not – but as the proverb goes “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness”.8
And who knows, maybe my blog will inspire others to do the same. It’s rare that good things happen due to one big hero doing one big thing – worthwhile change often comes from lots of little people doing lots of little things.
I hope my contribution proves to be just one amidst many.
- Dash, A. “The Web We Lost” (2012, December 13th). Anil Dash. ↩︎
- Graham, T and Andrejevic, M. “Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s social media posts have had a ‘sudden boost’ since July, new research reveals” (2024, November 1st). The Conversation. ↩︎
- Farrell, M and Berjon, R. “We Need To Rewild The Internet” (2024, April 16th). Noema Mag. ↩︎
- Dash, A. “It Feels Like 2004 Again” (2024, October 15th). Anil Dash ↩︎
- Westenberg, J. “You Don’t Have to Monetize The Things You Love” (2025, February 20th). Westenberg. ↩︎
- Ramirez, N. “Elon Brings One of America’s Most Prominent Nazis Back to Twitter” (2022, December 2nd). Rolling Stone. ↩︎
- Joshi, K. “You are the fuel that energises Elon Musk’s hate machine” (2024, April 19th). Ketan Joshi: Posts about climate and energy. ↩︎
- Westenberg, J. “We Don’t Need More Cynics. We Need More Builders” (2025, January 14th). Westenberg. ↩︎