Magnolia on Pattison Road, very near the Centre of the Universe.
28 March 2026
In this issue: the architecture of happiness, a very fast fluffy dog, and the problem with envelopes.
But first:
Two things making me cheerful right now: springtime walks on the Heath, and the slightly unlikely pleasure of publishing both this weekly newsletter and a daily email series for a narrow readership who actually want it.
The daily Speccy Breakdown emails (details below) include audio recordings – a kind of private podcast that doesn’t try to reach millions of total strangers absolutely everywhere. Perhaps I should try to do that, with a proper podcast? Maybe, but given the nature of what I’m publishing, this feels better.
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A Speccy Man (me) has a Breakdown – latest
The daily Speccy Breakdown series has now reached Day 23, and the artwork deadline is this coming Monday. Major things still to do: finalise the sequence of pages and, er, finalise the text.
So far, 28 people have pre-ordered the book. It’s happening.
Recent instalments have moved between the painful and the practical – the architecture of happiness, a crash helmet, the problem with envelopes, and the rules I’m making up as I go along. Each instalment (except one) includes an audio recording.
This week: drawings of old friends from university – and from the breakdown itself. The people I messaged from hospital, certain I would never hear from them again.
If you’re not already following along, you can read every instalment and sign up here.
To buy a copy: buying options and shipping costs are here. At the time of writing, 222 copies remain.
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Dogged reportage
Location: Branch Hill, heading towards Hampstead.
Fluffy dog – breed unknown, but I can tell you its legs were moving very fast. Two reasons: 1) to keep up with its owner, and 2) to get away from a rather tough-looking Alsatian behind it.
As I may have mentioned, I’m hoping to achieve a kind of doggy reportage with these drawings: they’re not posing for the camera but just going about their business.
This is the fifth in a series. I drew this one in October, around the time Peanut was quite unwell and I didn’t feel like posting pictures of other dogs looking perky. She’s a lot better now, happily.
Other world news in brief
Humans can’t reliably recall colours, and I’ve come across a simple game that tests how good (or bad) you are at it. I was instantly hooked, and became rather competitive (that’s a link to a screenshot showing my highest score.) Artists: unless you work only in black and white I think you will become competitive too. Play it here.
Some students are now deliberately writing worse to prove they’re not using AI – and the effort to sound more human is, ironically, pushing them to use more AI.
If you enjoy finding faces in unlikely objects (as when the headlamps and bumpers on a car form eyes and a mouth) do look at this priceless collection of photos curated by my friend Liza Campbell.
Pixel art I saw someone playing with pixel art and felt very nostalgic for the time the internet was full of that stuff. For the sheer fun of it, I uploaded my handwritten logo and pixellated it, thus:
Then I did it again with the little round portrait of Yours Truly that appears at the end of my emails:
Housekeeping
The Writers Support Group – please note that from April onwards the group will move to the second Thursday of the month, to sidestep bank holidays and the rest of the calendar’s nonsense.
Unoffice Hours are bookable as usual.
Last time, Kate asked to buy a limited edition print of the main image in the newsletter – which was a very welcome surprise. Many of the pictures I share here are either currently available or will be at some point; I tend to rotate what I concentrate on rather than have everything in the shop at once. Worth knowing if something catches your eye.
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If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it by email or on social media. Here's the link. Thanks, JPF.