Cartoon Gravity 31

Another short one. Normal rambling service will resume soon.

I'm now deep into bullet journaling and I can't recommend it highly enough. I'm enjoying being organised for the first time in forever, and I'm enjoying letting what I do evolve organically, rather than have some app attempt to dictate my schedule. To scratch the tech itch, there's a Bullet Journal app which lets you scan pages in a really smart, organised way, and also lets you tap reminders and tasks into your phone, with the brilliant caveat that they vanish in 72 hours, so you have to migrate them over onto paper and keep the book up to date on a regular basis.

As a way to get away from the internet and apps and all the noise, bullet journaling takes some beating.

Another way I discovered, just this weekend, to get away from some noise is to get permanently banned from Facebook...

For context, I have not used any Meta products whatsoever for a good while because I despise the company and everything it stands for. However, in common with most freelancers, I am also a terrible whore, and someone had suggested that running ads on Facebook and Instagram would be a great way to reach those Lovecraft Investigations fans who were hitherto unaware of the Kickstarter.

So, somewhat reluctantly, I signed up for a new account and then created a Lovecraft Investigations page and then jumped through all the hoops to get a Meta Business account and set up ad payments and blah blah blah. The whole thing is a filthy business, but I soldiered on because I figured if we could get to make more audio shows as a result, then it would be worth taking one for the team.

I have a lot of friends on Facebook, so one of the first things I did was to send out some Friend Requests, to reconnect, all of which were accepted. Nonetheless, Facebook quickly sent me a message saying that I couldn't make any more friend requests because this was "suspicious activity". Connecting with friends on a social media platform is now "suspicious". I would understand if none of those people had responded, but they all had. And other people were adding me independently. Clearly not a bot. Never mind, though, I responded to people's messages, made a few stupid jokes etc. I didn't want to plug the Kickstarter too hard because it seemed like bad form to just show up and start shilling, so I wasn't even throwing links out.

I did try to set up ad payments, and Meta seemed more than happy to take my money - there's a shock.

Then, a few hours later, I got an email alleging suspicious activity on my account. Meta needed me to prove that I was human. Could I complete this puzzle and then upload a video of myself? I could and I did. Meta responded with "Great, you passed, you're a human being" or words to that effect; the irony of having my biological existence judged by a piece of software was not lost on me. Then, a few minutes after that, another email arrived telling me my account had now been "permanently suspended" and I was locked out of Facebook entirely.

So that was a fun 24 hours of failing to do a thing I didn't want to do in the first place. And the ignominy of finally relenting, of dropping my drawers and admitting that, yes, I would debase myself for money, only to be told that Meta doesn't fancy me that much anyway... You live and learn.

Groucho Marx had that thing of not wanting to be a member of any club that would have you as a member. Well, I don't want to be a member of a club that doesn't want me as a member either. But that's a harder sell, because it sounds like sour grapes. If I had stuck to my principles, I wouldn't be in this position. I still hate Meta with every fibre of my being, but I'm also now a hypocrite. It serves me right.

On the bright side, we reached our Kickstarter target in less than twenty-four hours. In the next few days, we'll hit our first stretch goal. That's without utilising any paid advertising or professional marketing or social media posts beyond lightly spamming Bluesky. That's a great testament to the shows and the people who work on them, and to the fans who have flocked in to help. We did it without Facebook or fucking Instagram (God I hate Instagram - what it could have been vs what it became is a crime against humanity), but I wish I was able to say that we never even tried to co-opt Meta's nefarious data-thieving bullshit, but that's not true any more. My soul is permanently tarnished and my self-image as an incorruptible paragon of virtue has taken a hit.

Still, it could have been worse. At least I didn't try to open an X account.

COMING SOON:

I'm planning a piece about the audio fiction landscape, because I think it's having a really interesting moment, and I'm noodling with a big piece about Grant Morrison's "The Invisibles", which is going to be a labour of love (for which read "Don't hold your breath").

I'm aware that Development Hell subscribers aren't getting a lot of bang for their buck at the moment, but I have some stuff in the pipeline to mitigate that. I'm making some notes on a piece about world building, and I have a longform thing in the works called "Seven Days In Another Town", about my trip to LA last August, which is proving tricky to write without naming names.

I'd really like to get into more longform pieces (like "Bits of the Mind's String") again, but my focus has been shot these past few weeks.

The Crowley Kickstarter is going to require me to get a podcast hosting platform to deliver the shows, so the thought of that has resurfaced an old desire to try out doing my own podcast. I don't know what it will be yet, but it's something I'm seriously considering.

An UPDATE on this: Someone in the Cartoon Gravity Club recommended Captivate.fm as a podcast hosting service and I just breezed through the set-up on there in a few minutes, without any glitches whatsoever. It's so rare for a site to be that well thought through; it's welcoming and easy and incredibly pleasant to use. If anyone has a need for a podcast hosting service, Captivate comes highly recommended.

The Pleasant Green site, has been a little dormant while the Kickstarter is in progress, but I have a big fiction serial planned for that which I'm excited to get going on next month.

Another thing I want to write about in depth is Streamline Moderne, which was a 1930s Art Deco style that I'm becoming a little obsessed with. I don't have enough research for a full piece yet but I did find this amazing bit of archive video. I love the writing in these things (even if some of it is... Shall we say "Of its time"?)

That's all for the moment. Have a pleasant Sunday, and please keep spreading the word about the Kickstarter.

Fuck it. Send.