Home For Fiction – Blog

for thinking people

Patreon LogoPatreon

Mass Tourism Needs to Die

September 16, 2024

Society

capitalism, ignorance, social masses, social media, society

Greece has many beautiful places, and though I’m Greek and I spent the first 20 or so years of my life there, I of course haven’t visited its every corner. I recently spent a few days on Crete, and let me tell you, it was an eye-opening experience. Mass tourism needs to die, yesterday!

You might have recently seen how Spanish citizens in Malaga and other places have protested mass tourism. If you live in any remotely touristy location – let alone a place like Rome, Paris, or Venice – you surely know first-hand how damaging mass tourism can be.

I was so affected by my own experiences – which I’ll talk about more in a while – that I decided to write this post. I was always against mass tourism, but now I am absolutely adamant: Mass tourism must die!

mass tourism needs to die. image of tourists in Louvre
(more…)

Walrus Insulter: a Fun Little JavaScript Program

September 9, 2024

Home For Fiction, Programming

art, creativity, imagination, javascript, programming

Does the word “insulter” exist in a standard dictionary? I don’t know and I’m too bored to search. But the name Walrus Insulter definitely does, in my dictionary. Obviously for those who know him, Walrus Insulter refers to none other than the supreme overlard [sic] of puns, my cartoon character Punning Walrus. If you haven’t met him yet, just click the “Free Walrus” link on the top menu. Or here’s the direct link for the lazy ones among you…

The whole thing, as they usually do, began on a boring cloudy afternoon. I was playing with my home network, trying to find new ways to annoy my neighbors (more of this in a while), when I realized that the best… walrus for the job is of course Punning Walrus.

Walrus Insulter. Screenshot from the program
Walrus Insulter: Don’t mess with the Walrus 😛
(more…)

The Creative Lifestyle: Building Good Habits

September 2, 2024

Writing

creativity, society, writing

On a practical level, a lifestyle is a way of life, a set of habits and actions that guide one’s routine. Obviously, there are many methodological and even moral consequences. For example, a vegetarian lifestyle influences one’s choices of, say, food shopping, as well as their way of thinking about animals. Similarly, a creative lifestyle affects a person’s way of dealing – as well as thinking about – creative expressions.

Ultimately, a creative lifestyle is about building good habits: supporting a way of life that makes it easier to experience, find connections, and express them artistically.

I got inspiration for this post after I realized I’ve drawn more than 500 (at the time I write this text) Punning Walrus episodes in less than a year – starting basically from zero drawing skills. That means, on average, more than one per day. Some days I drew five or six, some days I didn’t draw any. This, too, is important as we’ll see.

Indeed, a creative lifestyle isn’t about being creative “no matter what”. Rather, it’s about including creativity as an integral part of your identity, resulting in creativity becoming not something you do but something you are.

creative lifestyle. image of a man running
As every runner will tell you, once you get into the mindset of running – once it becomes a lifestyle – you don’t see it as something you do; you see it as something you are. A creative lifestyle is no different.
(more…)