It’s Solstice Time, which is a great thing. I think maybe New Year’s being in the middle of the winter does make some sort of sense, in that we’ve made it to the turning point where the nights can’t get any longer. I don’t know. Pagans and animals and people, am I right?

This pig head showed up in an empty lot down the block since August, when I drew it. Now it’s gotten frostbite and lost an ear. It’s blackened and maybe even creepier than it was then. Anyhow…It’s outlined in black on the left, resting on a plastic bag. I gave it another go on the right, going for more of a contour type of thing. I don’t know how well you can see it, but what should I care? It’s my fuckin’ sketchbook! Fuck you! Who do you think you are!?

I’m sick of spelling. I’m sure everybody else in the world is too. Why not make phonics actually work, especially if that’s how we’re going to teach people to read and to write? Wouldn’t it make sense to condense our language a bit? (Wudn’t it maak sens too kondens aur laqwij a bit?)

Nobody needs Q as it is. But, Q looks similar to G, so it can be NG.
X is also useless, but since it’s like a crooked T, it can stand in for TH.
No need for Z either, so turn that backwards S into SH!
C can be replaced by K or S where it makes those sounds, but we need it for CH, so it will do that on its own.
G will always be hard G, J will always be soft J.

Now, I admit the vowels are much harder. This is probably the most imperfect part of my New Spelling, and I admit it could use some work. But I’m trying to avoid accents and letter combinations, and to use only the letters we already have. Then again, the vowels as they stand are pretty freakin’ imperfect.

A alone is hard like cat
AA is long like ate
E is like ebb
EE is like pee
I is like imp
II is like eye
O is like pot (and like walk)
OO is like oar
U is like up (and like what, and at least for now, also like bird)
UU is like poo
Y is a consonant!

Ookaa, yuu kan luk foor moor uv xis in xu fyuucur. Heer’s a kupl droweeqs, boox storted wix xu litl droweeqs of karakturs II’m wurkeeq on and xen II druu giis on xu traan: