The end of an era
It probably hasn't escaped your attention that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in the history of these divided isles, passed away on Thursday 8th of September, 2022. Bulldog was born a royalist, raised a royalist, and proudly remains a royalist. We appreciate not everybody was, but for the majority of the population of the UK and the Commonwealth of Nations, the passing of our Sovereign Queen is a profound loss and a huge change.
Her Majesty wasn't just "a" queen, she was "the" Queen. Figurehead of our nation and head of state of many others, but above all - for those of Bulldog's age who never knew her as anything else - she was sort of the nation's gran. As with all grans, we knew this day would surely arrive one day - so soon after ol' Phillip was a shock - but the preparation of time leaves us no less numb.
Rest in peace, your Majesty. Long live the King, Charles III.
Bulldog received the sad news last week that former DigitalBulldog client Mark Bonnett had passed away suddenly. As author Mark W. Bonnett he created the Cynos Universe which began with the epic Messiah's Shard. As extremely talented artist and creator Bonnatron/Johnbonhamatron he gave delight to many with his Transformers custom addons and third-party figures. With the impending publication of his first book, Messiah's Shard, Mark asked Bulldog to help proofread the manuscript. Whoever was supposed to do it had been unable to. Building the website for Mark's books was one of Bulldog's favourite projects - Mark had a sharp mind for science fiction with a sympathetic yet satirical humour, like the unexpected offspring of Arthur C Clark and Mark's own literary hero Terry Pratchett. Many long nights were spent bantering back and forth on how inventively daft and satirical we could make that website.