Looking Back
It seems somehow appropriate, given that we are spending New Years Eve on our own at home, to look back over the last 12 months and write a few well consider...
Posts from 2016
Giving The Game Away
Yesterday afternoon I found myself talking to a distant friend on the internet about the manga doodles in my notebook (see yesterday’s post if you have not a...
Endings And Beginnings
It’s the evening of the 1st of January - the first day of the new year - and I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room trying to find a few words to put toget...
Signing Up With Bloglovin
I have no idea if BlogLovin is still a thing, or if it is any better or worse than any of the other aggregators such as Feedly, but what the hell.
Contemplating A Bullet Journal For The New Year
I’ve been thinking about trying out a “Bullet Journal” for the new year. I have seen lots of friends on the internet start them, and have to admit it’s tempt...
Filling My Moleskine With Manga
Many moons ago I bought a Moleskine notebook filled with plain paper, and did nothing with it. It’s been kicking around the house for months. Over the last c...
Truth And Honesty On The Internet
I began blogging before the word had become part of the common vernacular. In the early days, people wrote about their day - their life. Online journals form...
Seasons Greetings
It is late in the evening of Christmas Day, and I’m finally finding time to sit quietly and record a few thoughts and memories of the last 48 hours, so my ch...
A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away
For the past several years my other half has organised a “Christmas Surprise” for the entire family - a day out somewhere once we all finish school and work,...
An Unexpected Surprise
After getting in from work last night, I dropped my bag, and wandered past my other half to the kitchen sink to begin washing up - picking up cups, plates an...
Adventure Awaits
At some point after dinner last night I pulled the “Dungeons and Dragons” starter set out of my work backpack, and asked the kids if they would be interested...
Rogue One
We finally got to the cinema to watch Rogue One last night. As always when we all go, it was quite an effort - not least because my other half bumped into a ...
Boots Of Infinite Striding
I have a confession to make. I never played “Dungeons and Dragons” when I was younger. Meeting me as an adult, you might suspect otherwise - I own or have ow...
Be Careful What You Wish For
You know there’s an old saying about being careful what you wish for? I distinctly remember writing a post in the blog about my life becoming increasingly mu...
How I Met Your Mother
Given that everybody gets a free pass to be as sentimental as they want in a personal blog, and that I have just read a wonderful blog post about meeting peo...
Grease Is The Word
This evening started as something of a madcap race against time - to get home, eat dinner, wash up, and then head out to our middle daughter’s school to watc...
Anyone For Weiqi
Our eldest daughter is being taught Japanese at the school she visits twice a week, I think mainly because an insightful teacher realised it would be an “in”...
Distracted By Red Dwarf
I’m not sure why, but I’ve struggled to find anything of consequence to write about for the last few days. Normally I can be relied upon to spout hundreds of...
Moleskines Filofaxes And Pencil Cases
While wandering around the stationers in town with our eldest daughter this morning, helping her choose Christmas presents for relatives, I spotted the rack ...
Trains Trains And More Trains
I boarded the train from Barnsley to Sheffield at 12:40pm, and watched the grey and gloomy world pass by outside the window as we trundled between railway st...
Balancing The World On My Shoulders
Tonight marked a milestone of sorts for the project I have been working on for the last several weeks. I finally pulled the curtains back, and started lettin...
The Web Developer Exhales
I think the project I am working on has turned a corner today. After a colossal “sprint” over the last month, I pushed the fruits of my endless headbanging s...
An Overdue Introduction
It would seem appropriate to tell new readers a bit about myself. Of course this is easier to say than do, because you suddenly become very introspective, an...
Tuesday Night Hotel Club
Day two of the great far-flung adventure comes to a close. I’ve just returned to the hotel room after eating dinner in the restaurant next door. There’s some...
Elbows Out
At the time I begin writing this, the clock on the laptop screen is ticking towards 7pm. I can’t glance at the watch on my wrist because the strap snapped ea...
Preparing To Travel
Sunday morning is rapidly vanishing. I had grand plans about sitting with a cup of tea and writing some lengthy brain-dumpish tome about “where I am right no...
Filtered Selfies
I’ve been thinking about selfies recently - or rather - filtered selfies. Take the photo accompanying this post for example. Taken at just the right angle, w...
A Small World
While standing at the touchline of the football pitch watching our youngest daughter warm up with her team-mates for a match this morning, I got talking to o...
Working From Home
It’s Friday morning, and I’m working from home. I thought about getting my hair cut this morning, but had a telephone conference mid-morning. Of course that ...
Tired Eyes
I didn’t really sleep the night before last - my other half kept waking up with a cough. I remember looking at the clock at 4am, and wondering if I could sur...
The Desk Of Holding
Given that I have little or nothing to report on today (yet again), I thought it might be fun to pull one of the “amusing to the author” exercises out of my ...
Scout Elves And Chromebooks
When the children wake up tomorrow morning they will discover we have a visitor perched in the upstairs landing window. Our scout elf, “Grace”, has arrived v...
Nothing To Report
This is going to be a wonderfully random post about nothing of consequence, because I really do have nothing of significance to report.
Off Sick
After working like a trojan all weekend to keep the house and family together while everybody else was sick, my body finally held up the surrender flag this ...
Goodbye Weekend
It would have been nice to have seen more of this weekend. My other half has been sick, so I’ve spent the entire weekend washing and drying clothes, taking t...
Stepping Away From The Edge
I wobbled this week. I looked at this “upside down” I have created, this “horcrux”, and I wondered if it was a good idea. And as quickly as I began thinking ...
Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them
I took the children to watch “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” this afternoon. While watching the movie (which was wonderful), my mind wandered back ...
Welcome To Procrastination Central
I have been working on a development “sprint” for the last few weeks - which essentially means you write code as fast as you can, to deploy as fast as you ca...
Writing A Paper Journal
Rather unexpectedly, I pulled the old Moleskine notebook from my bag this evening and began writing. I used to write in it almost every day - recording the t...
Tuesday In London
I somehow managed to wake up at 5am this morning, stared at the ceiling for a while, and then fell back asleep. I woke again with the alarm clock at 6am, and...
Recycling Old Blog Posts
One of the quite wonderful benefits of splitting my social media endeavours into many parts (and yes, it really does feel like I’ve created a number of Horcr...
Football Shopping Beer And Video Games
Yesterday was the kind of day that keeps kicking you to the floor, every time you get up. It started with a room-to-room battle with our two younger children...
A Few Words
Here I am again - sitting in bed with the old netbook propped on my lap, writing this post in a text editor, rather than trust any of the clever-dick word pr...
Welcome To Thursday
For some reason Thursdays have been ridiculous ever since we first had children. Every after-school-club in the known universe happens on Thursday nights. It...
Ignoring Is A Skill
I spent 2000 to 2008 ignoring complaints about George W Bush, then spent the next 8 years ignoring people complain about Obama, and will probably have to spe...
Grandad And The Price Of Beer
That’s me on the left. The little kid with the gappy teeth and the army jumper that shrank in the wash. That’s my step-grandfather on the right. I’m guessing...
Constructing Rabbit Holes
At the start of the month I began a blogging experiment of sorts. I described it to myself at the time as “slipping under the radar” - severing ties between ...
Goodbye Sunday
It’s funny really - you look forward to the weekend throughout the week, and then when it gets here you don’t really get a chance to enjoy it because you’re ...
Saturday
I didn’t write a blog post yesterday. I’m tempted to say this is far greater importance than the orange lunatic winning the US presidential election (or mayb...
Final Night
You find me sitting at the desk in my hotel room once more, tapping away on the keyboard of a laptop under the light of a desk lamp, wondering what to do wit...
The Day After
After watching the most recent episode of Westworld late last night I fell fast asleep, and didn’t wake up until perhaps 6am. After daydreaming for a while, ...
Another Journey Another Hotel
I should perhaps volunteer before writing any more that I have consumed two pints of cider this evening. If past experience is anything to go by, the alcohol...
Monday Night Pizza Club
I have perhaps twenty minutes to write this before my other half returns home, and the house descends into chaos once more. Since returning home from work on...
The Remains Of The Weekend
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room on a quiet Sunday evening. My other half and oldest daughter are at the far end of the country, staying in a rented ...
Sunday Morning
It’s heading towards 11am on a cold and frosty Sunday morning. I noticed yesterday after the wind picked up that most of the leaves have now fallen from the ...
Single Handed
My other half has gone away with her Mum and our eldest daughter to the Lake District this weekend - the hilly bit of England in the top left corner, that bo...
Exiting Nano Again
This is beginning to be a pattern that repeats every year. I start NaNoWriMo, I get off to something of a flyer (I got to 25,000 words in 4 days this time), ...
Infant School
I never went to nursery school, and I’m pretty sure “reception” didn’t exist when I was young - you started school (by law) at 5 years old, and became one of...
4 Burswin Road
Until I was 5 years old, we lived in a small bungalow near the corner of a quiet road, in a sleepy town in the middle of the Cotswolds called Carterton. Unti...
Preface
After wondering what on earth I might write for NaNoWriMo this year, it finally dawned on me that an Autobiography might be a good idea. I have an entire uni...
1973
In the annuls of history, perhaps 1973 won’t go down as one of the more notable years. It doesn’t have the same instant recognition as 1066, 1492, of 1984. A...
Halloween
On the way home from work tonight I passed a family getting out of a car in a road not far from home, and overheard the Dad say to the children “don’t worry ...
Sunday Seven
The house is ready for Halloween party tomorrow night. I have no idea why we have invited friends to our house again. * As the years go by, I ...
Clothes Shopping
I don’t like shopping for clothes. There. I said it. I’m not entirely sure why, either. Perhaps it’s the label victims wandering around stores - the people t...
Slow Saturdays In Radiator Springs
I’m not entirely sure that I’ve woken up yet, which feels like a ridiculous thing to write, because it’s after 4pm. It doesn’t help that I was up until 2am m...
Preparing For Nanowrimo
Before describing what I’ve spent the greater part of the evening doing, it’s probably worth dispelling a few myths, or preconceptions. I work as a software ...
Friday Morning 9Am
At 6:45am on a weekday our house lurches into life. The heating timer ticks over, and a quiet thunder of hot water rumbles through pipes throughout the house...
Pantsing Nanowrimo
Apparently my approach to NaNoWriMo this year is a method known as “pantsing” it - or rather to describe more fully, doing it by the seat of my pants. I gues...
Aligning The Planets
I pulled the trigger on something this morning. Something I have been thinking about for some time. I guess you could call it “aligning the planets”, but you...
The Wheels On The Bus
You know the children’s song “the wheels on the bus go round and round” ? - I can’t help feeling that yesterday the wheels on my bus started to fall off one ...
Trains Planes And Comic Book Heroes
After the disaster that Monday became, I summoned Miss 12 from bed at 7am yesterday morning for a repeat performance. By 8am we were waiting patiently at the...
Nanowrimo Approaches
There are only five days left until the annual lunacy starts, and I haven’t given a single thought to what I might write about yet. I’ve tinkered with the ol...
Not Making It To London
Today was supposed to be all about taking my middle daughter for a day out in London - just the two of us. I have taken the eldest, and youngest daughters on...
Lost
Normally I am absolutely fine with being alone - with living inside my own little bubble - but sometimes I can feel incredibly lost, and I have no idea why. ...
Far From Home
At 5:15 this morning, my body performed the magic trick it often performs, and woke me ahead of my phone erupting into whatever the factory default alarm clo...
130Am
I’m not sure what I’m about to write. All I really know is that it’s 1:30am, and I became aware earlier that I didn’t post anything on the blog yesterday. Gi...
The Insanity Of Selfies
While somepeople pepper Instagram, Flickr, Facebook and Tumblr with their smiling face, I seem to have avoided the self-directed spotlight in recent years. I...
Seduced By Tumblr Again
At 2am this morning I sat in bed on my own, gazing at my mobile phone, wondering when sleep would crash into me like anunpredictable freight train. I had jus...
Two Weeks Until Nanowrimo
I realised today that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) starts in two weeks. I’m already wondering if I can get away with doing it purely by writing 1...
A Quiet Day
I appear to be the only person on the entire floor of the office at work today. I’m also in-between projects, so am taking the chance to run backups, configu...
Off The Radar
I looked at my mobile phone a few minutes ago - it’s still reading over 80% battery charge remaining. This wouldn’t normally be that remarkable, only the pho...
Marilyn
Many years agoI went to college, and spent the better part of two years drawing people in various states of undress. One of the projects intended to fill our...
On The Inside Looking Out
I worked from home again today - part of a bigger picture I have not written about in the blog, and may never explain fully. Let’s just say I needed to make ...
Sunday Morning 9Am
The clock has just ticked past 9am on Sunday morning. I have been up for about an hour. I’ve had a shower, got dressed, had some breakfast, a coffee, loaded ...
Opening A Can Of Worms
Somebody I have known for quite some time, and respect enormously has requested repeatedly over the last few months for me to expand on some of the subjects ...
Football Celebrities And Instant Rage
It’s been an eventful Saturday. We arrived at the local soccer pitches at 9:20am, expecting half an hour of warm-up before a 10am kick-off for both Miss 11 a...
Inspired By New Friends
I’ve been writing a blog for a very, very long time. If you include the static sites I posted to the internet before the dawn of “blogging”, I’m almost comic...
Stir Crazy
I had planned on being in the office today. That all changed a few minutes after waving the children off to school, when it transpired that the plans recorde...
Resurrecting The Nerdy Stuff
I resurrected my personal homepage on the internet today - the site filled with techie stuff - programming snippets - nerdy stuff. I’m resisting the temptati...
Working From Home
Today I find myself holed up in the study/junk room at home, drinking coffee, and trying to get my head around somethingI have been studiously avoiding at wo...
Warcraft
We watched “Warcraft” last night - the movie based on the massively multiplayer role playing game “World of Warcraft” (or more specificallythe never-ending l...
An Absence Of Adventure
While reading a wonderful post about a far flung friend’s tumultuous journey to Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert earlier this year, a pretty obvious trui...
Birthdays Chores Mobile Phones And Endless Rain
It’s 10:30am on Saturday morning. The washing machine is on it’s third load after getting up a little after 7am. Both of the younger kids are at football mat...
Thoughts About Leaving Tumblr
Over the past few weeks I’ve been giving this whole blogging escapade a fair amount of thought. More thought than I’ve given it in quite some time - which do...
Eating My Middle Daughters Lunch
I suppose technically my lunchtime has already finished, but given that I’ve been answering co-workers questions, responding to emails, and doing whatever el...
A Magazine About Blogging
While perusing the various techie magazines in a high street shop this afternoon, waiting for Miss 16 to buy whatever it is that 16 year old’s take half an h...
Hunted Idiocy Abounds
I started watching a television show this evening called “Hunted”, where a group of people are given the opportunity to try and win 100,000 by “not getting c...
An Adventure In London
Miss 16 received quite a bit of money for her birthday - both from ourselves, and from extended family - and hadn’t really had a chance to spend anything yet...
The One Where I Was Mistaken For A Former Professional Sports Person
While standing at the side of the football pitch watching our youngest play this morning, a Dad that lives across the way from us wandered up to me, and aske...
The Raspberry Pi Escape Plan
In news that will not surprise anybody, I’ve just spent the last couple of hours doing an “Elliot”, and essentially turning the Raspberry Pi that’s been doin...
Eating And Drinking
People who take any notice at all of the rubbish I post on Instagram probably think I’m some kind of heavy drinker, given that I routinely post pictures of w...
The One Where The Nice Lady Cut My Hair And Told Me Her Life Story
After finishing work a little early this evening to make a call, I decided to do something about the unruly mop of hair growing out of the top of my head. Af...
Part Of Something Bigger
It often feels like I’ve written more than most, I’ve been around longer than most, and yet I’ve never really sought attention, or garnered any fame. I guess...
Heading North Yet Again
Sitting on the train once again, heading north. Watching TV shows downloaded from Amazon Prime, and reading bits and pieces of books on the Kindle.
In The Grounds Of Hogwarts
Our eldest daughter was 16 years old today. Because there are only 24 hours in a day, we went out for dinner last night for her birthday to the local pub. I ...
Ready Player One
Back in 2011 I received a random email from a distant friend on the internet - “I’m reading this book called ‘Ready Player One’, and couldn’t help thinking o...
Is This The World We Created
A couple of years ago a wonderful series was broadcast in the UK, dramatising the beginnings of both David Bailey, and Jean Shrimpton’s careers (he discovere...
15 Years
Today marks the 15th anniversary of standing at the front of a church full of family and friends, making all sorts of promises in front of somebody dressed i...
Waiting Listening And Ignoring The Idiots
This afternoon you find me sitting in the waiting room of the doctors. I imagine I’ll be here for the best part of an hour. I’m not about to explain why eith...
Whos Idea Was It To Go Running Again
For some bizarre reason while exchanging messages with a friend on the other side of the world earlier this evening I guilted myself into going running. At 9...
Tick Tock Tick Tock
I ordered a new watch from Amazon yesterday afternoon - to replace the Casio digital watch I’ve been wearing for the last year. I spent three times as much o...
A Distinct Lack Of Hobbies
While my other half was away taking part in a charity walk this weekend, I found myself repeatedly filling the washing machine, hanging clothes out to dry, f...
Oh So Quiet
My other half is walking a section of the “Thames Challenge” for charity this weekend with her Mum - as far as I understand, they are doing a 20+ kilometre s...
Awkward Much
When I arrived at a client site with work recently, the woman that greeted me in reception shook my hand, and then the following conversation happened :
The My Aesthetic Meme
A few days ago I was tagged on Tumblr to take part in a “My Aesthetic” meme. The task seemed to require the compilation of ten photos you had taken in the pa...
Beyond The Wall
I’m in the north of England once more - staying in the Holiday Inn for one night before returning home tomorrow. Five hours each way for a two hour demonstra...
Unexpected Travel Plans
You know the one where you think you’re going to be presenting a demonstration of something clever over the internet to a room full of business people later ...
Back To School Back To Work
The alarm went off at 6:30am this morning, and we scraped ourselves out of bed. I jumped in the shower and had a shave, re-appearing in time to discover the ...
Juggling
It’s been a weekend. I’ve spent the majority of it building flat-pack furniture, and re-arranging children’s bedrooms in preparation for the new school year....
Perhaps A Coffee Will Help
I’m not sure if I’m coming or going at the moment. My other half has been back at work yesterday and today - I go back on Monday. The washing machine has bee...
Getting To Know Me
It occurred to me this afternoon that while I often recount the story of a day, or express an opinion about something or other, I very rarely describe myself...
Home From The Coast
We are finally home from my parents on the south-west coast of England. Back to the rat race, and back to a world of expectation, obligation, and “who can pi...
Last Night In Cornwall
After a final day spent on the beach (we really cannot believe the weather we have had), we wandered into Looe this evening and had a family meal together. W...
On The Boat
This afternoon we visited the marina where my Dad’s yacht is moored to help him do some maintenance tasks - replacing a rope on the mast, and replacing the d...
Drifting Away
I picked up a local newspaper this afternoon and read “the stars” out to everybody - the astrological predictions of the days ahead. I left my own until last...
The Monkey Sanctuary
We spent the greater part of today at a monkey sactuary a few miles from my parents home. It’s quite expensive to visit, but when you listen to the volunteer...
Another Day On The Beach
It’s the morning after the day before. Yesterday we got up early, threw food, drinks, buckets and spades into bags, and headed towards the beach under blue s...
Up A Hill And Down Again
After waking up this morning to a steady drizzle running down the windows of my parents house, any plans to repeat our trip to the beach went out of the wind...
A Day On The Beach
We lucked into blue skies this morning, so dragged the kids out of their beds first thing, and headed to the local sandy beach. We feared not being able to f...
The Journey To Cornwall
After a day spent washing clothes and half-heartedly packing bags yesterday, this morning began with a much more concerted effort to throw every phone, iPad,...
Sunday Evening Anime Marathon
After spending the greater part of the day washing clothes, re-installing phones for little people, grocery shopping, fixing handles on drawers, and various ...
Single Handed Saturday
I’m sitting in bed at 10pm, typing this on the old iPad. My other half is at a music festival with her friends. I am holding the fort. I’m not going to descr...
Where Did All The Towels Go
This morning was going so well. I woke up at some ridiculous hour, fell back asleep and had quite the most bizarre dream in recent memory, and then woke agai...
Third Night
While writing the title to this post, the Shakespeare play with a very similar name popped into my head, and I had delusions of grandier for - oh - about a m...
Day Two In The Hotel
For the last few minutes I have been knocking around the hotel room, trying to find somewhere comfortable to sit with the laptop.
The Unhappy Man And His Bicycle
Before launching into a riveting account of my journey north this morning (I’m living it up in a hotel all week - go me), I must share a moment from earlier ...
Superpowers
As you may have read a few days ago, I setup a Minecraft server on the internet for our kids and their friends to login to and share. As the administrator of...
Nothing Lasts Forever
Back in 2007I was travelling to London on the train one day, listening to “This Week in Tech” - a podcast run by Leo Laporte from the back room of his house....
Preparing To Travel
I’m leaving on the early train in the morning, heading first into central London, and then north towards a hotel on the edge of a business park several hundr...
Off The Grid
I’ve been kind of absent from the blog for the last few days. I don’t really know why. I guess it would be easy to say “life, the universe, and everything” g...
Shades Of Anorak
After repeated requests from both my own children, and various children of friends that realised I might have the skills required to do it, I have installed ...
An Early Adventure In London
The alarm went off at 5am this morning. I don’t remember switching it off - I’m guessing my body did that curious auto-pilot trick where you wake up a few mo...
The Movie Challenge
While talking about movies that various actors had been in last night, our eldest daughter roller her eyes and stated as dramatically as possible that all”ol...
The 31St Olympiad Begins
I stayed up last night to watch the opening ceremony of the 31st Olympic games from Rio, Brasil. The ceremony started at midnight, and continued into the ear...
Pretending
Sometimes it’s nicehaving a secret band of friends half a world away. You are an escape. A distraction from the drudgery of every day life. Sometimes it can ...
New Friends
Over the last few weeks I have been inexorably drawn back towards blogging, and in response something quite wonderful has happened.
The Mathematics Of Bird Shit
This morning was wonderful. The sun shone, the birds sang, blue sky stretched to the horizon in all directions, and there was hardly a breath of wind. As I c...
A Search Party Of Sorts
I have decided it’s high time I left the front door of my blog and went off in search of new and interesting people to read the exploits of, and to become li...
The One Where She Started A Blog
My eldest daughter now has a blog over at Tumblr. I spent the better part of yesterday evening helping her join the dots between Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagr...
Random Thoughts On Thursday Night
I suppose technically it’s already Friday morning, but it still feels like Thursday night to me, so the title will stay as is.
Cats Versus Goldfish
When I got home from work last night I said hello to Miss 15, and she seemed a little down - I couldn’t quite put my finger on what might be wrong, so while ...
Harry Potter And The Cursed Child
After the mysterious failed delivery on Monday, I arrived back in the office this morning to discover an Amazon box propped in the crate of milk bottles outs...
Towards The Tower
The alarm on my phone went off at 6am this morning, and woke me with a start. After watching the minutes tick by for a while on the radio alarm clock, I slid...
The Invisible Man
Let us all give thanks the Amazon delivery driver that”tried” to deliver my parcel this afternoon. Not only has he apparently borrowed an invisible delivery ...
Sunday In London
What started as a random conversation with our eldest daughter yesterday afternoon turned into my waking with a start at 7:30 this morning - a Sunday morning...
Coffee Solves Everything
I woke a little after 3am this morning after being elbowed by my other half. I woke with a start to be informed that I had been snoring like a demented diese...
Its Not You Its Me
I’ve been resisting the temptation to walk from Tumblr for several months now. I have many friends within it’s labyrinthine tunnels, but their number has bee...
A Mountain Of Text Files
Hidden away in Dropbox I have a neatly organised collection of every written post I have published on the internet since the beginning of 2003. Each individu...
Humpday
It’s Wednesday. Officially half-way through an ultimately forgettable week. I’m guessing the rest of the universe has gone on holiday already - I’m not going...
Truthful Tuesday
I thought it might be interesting to take part in one of the more popular blogging memes that do the rounds, and write down a truth about myself. Unburden my...
A Confession Of Sorts
Back in the mid 1990s when nerd fashion almost dictated that you should buy webspace and publish your own website, I installed a copy of a web development to...
Cycling On The Footpath
While lying in bed listening to the radio alarm clock this morning, my other half sat up with a start, and nudged my shoulder.
Thoughts About Friendship
One of the nice things about clearing the decks of the blog is that I can pick and choose old posts from time to time - to make them new again. A version of ...
Scorched Earth
At some point yesterday evening a snowball of an idea started rolling through my brain. By the time I got up this morning it had gained momentum somewhat - c...
Thursday Night And Friday Morning
I have been sitting here for an hour now - wondering what to write. I guess this perpetuates the grand tradition of “I have nothing to say, and I’m saying it...
Retreating From Social Platforms
It all started a few weeks ago - when I was working on-site, and spent the week of evenings away meddling with server installs, databases, and migrations of ...
Overlapping Circles
I’ve started writing this post three times so far. I was going to write about a television show, and the parallels with my own lifebut then wondered if it wa...
North Of The Wall
While travelling north on the train today for yet another few days holed up in a distant hotel, I replied to a friend that enquired about my destination - “n...
My Daughter The Blogger
Miss 15 has signed up for a blog on the internet. I’m resisting the temptation to cheer out loud, and do cartwheels around the house. It’s her first blog. Af...
The One Where The Pretty Lady Stole My Hair
I had been meaning to get my increasingly unruly mop of hair chopped off for the last week or so. It had crossed the line from “a bit longer than usual” into...
Has Anyone Seen My Horse
It’s been three days since the last blog post. That’s probably a record of sorts. I have no idea what my longest streak of “every day” posts has been in the ...
The Time Travelling Dream
I first woke this morning at about 5:30am, squinted at the alarm clock, and prompty fell back asleep. I then woke with a start at 7:30am, half an hour after ...
More Thoughts About Blogging
I began blogging before the word had become part of the common vernacular. In the early days, people wrote about their day - their life. Online journals form...
Thunderbolts And Lightning
A couple of evenings ago, somebody I know quite well published a post on Facebook that caused perhaps the most entertaining argument I have seen in quite som...
Thoughts About The Social Internet
I wrote a few days that I had fallen off the internet bike this week - that life, the universe, and everything had conspired to drop me out of the whirling h...
Emptying My Head
It’s been a pretty brutal week, and I’m more than happy the weekend has arrived. I thought about describing exactly what I’ve been working on in the daytime,...
The School Production
I just got back from watching our youngest take part in the annual “Year 6 Production” - the final school event of her time at junior school. She leaves next...
This Is My Filofax
I happened upon a blog post about bullet journaling this evening - a retro inspired scheme to draw up lists in a paper notebook to somehow enforce order on a...
Lacking Effort
It feels like I’ve been investing little or no effort into blog posts for a while now - forcing the daily posts when I have little or nothing to share. I gue...
Sunday Night And Monday Morning
In my head it’s late on Sunday 3rd July, but a glance at the clock alongside the bed tells me it’s 12:42am - so Monday 4th July. My friends in America will h...
Arthur Europa Report Omd And The 1982 Top 40
It’s 11:20pm on Saturday night, and I suppose a small part of me is writing this to placate a voice in my head that’s busy whispering “if you don’t write som...
Breakfast For One
After waking up a little after 7am, having a shower, shave, brushing my teeth, and getting dressed, I wandered down for breakfast in the hotel. I had bought ...
Third Night In The Hotel
Tonight is my third night on my own in the hotel. There is no bar in the hotel (which is probably a very good thing, given past experiences of the kind of pe...
Breakfast In The Hotel
I woke this morning with a start, realised I was in the hotel, rolled over and looked at the laptop screen (which was plugged in, so hadn’t hibernated) - 6am...
People Watching On The Train
One of my favourite things to do while travelling with work is watch the world go by. The never ending streams of people leaving one train, and boarding anot...
And Then She Was Gone
The lady that lived opposite the office for the last several years has gone. Just like that. I arrived on my bike this morning, and the house stands empty. E...
Saturday Morning
A curious thing happens on weekends - I can’t bring myself to stay in bed. This morning I was up at 7am and making breakfasts for my other half and the young...
Goodbye Europe
I woke at 3am this morning, switched my phone on, and clumsily typed in the address of the BBC news website. Even at 3am the result of the European Union exi...
Exiting Disgracefully
I woke at 3am this morning, switched my phone on, and clumsily typed in the address of the BBC news website. Even at 3am the result of the European Union exi...
Well Played Mr Astley
One of my co-workers just informed whoever happened to be listening that Rick Astley has released a new album, and that it was at the top of the album charts...
Taking A Break From The Social Internet
I’ve had enough of the “social” internet - because it’s not really “social” at all.
Lacking Belief
I was going to title this post “I don’t believe in anything, and I’m fine with that”, but it seemed a bit long.
This Is What Busy Looks Like
Ok. This blog post has taken an hour so far. Miss 11 and Miss 12 were allowed to stay up to watch the European Cup football tournament on TV. I’ve just had t...
Cycling In The Rain
I didn’t notice it was raining this morning until I looked out of the window while finally gathering my own things together. This typically happens after mak...
Barefoot In The Office
I didn’t notice it was raining this morning until I looked out of the window while finally gathering my own things together. This typically happens after mak...
Mr Watson I Presume
We went out to our local theatre tonight to see Mark Watson - a stand-up comedian of some note. “Of some note” sounds like a tremendously aloof thing to say,...
Fathers Day
It’s just gone 10am. Myself and our middle girl are the only ones up so far. I made bacon sandwiches for breakfast, and cups of tea for everybody. Miss 15’s ...
The Little Computer That Could
I ordered a Raspberry Pi 3 starter kit last night from Amazon - it arrived in the office at lunchtime today. While I would love to get it out of the box and ...
Tired Annoyed And Thankful For Escapes
Today started out like a normal day. I got up, had a shower, shave, made breakfasts, packed lunches, washed up, sorted out medication for our eldest daughter...
Hacked Wifi Networks
One of my co-workers noticed this yesterday. The Wireless network of one of the buildings nearby has been changed to “Tim’s Gay But Fuck House”. I’m not sure...
The One Where The Replacement Fire Tablet Arrived
When I got home from work yesterday evening, I asked our eldest daughter (who had been in the house all day) if a delivery from Amazon had arrived. She shook...
Fathers Day Fun With The Girl Guides
After racing through dinner and washing up this evening, I was whisked off to the playing fields behind the church hall the local Girl Guides meet in to take...
Working Through Lunch
I can’t really say that I sacrificed anything by working through lunch today, but saying that I did (because I did) gives me the mental validation to spend t...
Whats The Point
After spending much of the weekend keeping the media at arms length, I felt it was time to write something at least to empty my head of the thoughts swirling...
Finding Time To Read
I’m trying to find more time to read at the moment. I’m not entirely sure what’s driving it - the realisation of how long it has been since I became lost in ...
Where Did Sunday Go
It’s just gone 3pm. My other half arrived home from the Brownie camping expedition a little before lunchtime. I made lunch for everybody, then took the child...
Sunday Morning
I woke a little after 7 this morning, looked at the bedside clock, and quietly wondered how long I could get away with not getting up for. After perhaps half...
The One Where The Regatta Is Inflicted On The Town Once More
While I knew the regatta was happening this weekend, I had kind of filed it away in a dark corner of my brain - I noticed the fairground setting up throughou...
Winning The Fundraiser Quiz Night
You know that one where you call home from work, ask if you need to pick anything up on your way home, are requested to buy pizza for the kids because you’ve...
Toasting Marshmallows
After leaving work this evening I made my way over to the local junior school to find our younger children (we are insane - we have three girls), who were ta...
The Morning After The Night Before
I woke up at 4:45 this morning. The alarm was set to go off at 5am - our youngest is going on a school trip to France for the day, so we had to get her into ...
Listening To Chewbacca
When I sat down to write this blog post, I had all the intentions in the world of telling the story of the open night at the brewery - about how we had turne...
Banner Artwork
I’ve decided to start adding banner images to the blog. I’ll change them up every so often, but at least it will give visitors something interesting to look ...
Working From Home
While reminding the children to get their school bags ready last night after a week off for half-term, my other half turned to me.
A Stone In My Internet Shoe
I like the internet. Given the various expectations and obligations placed upon me as somebody that works full time, has a family, and endless rounds of chor...
Lionesses
This evening we went on a family outing to watch the England women’s team play against Serbia in a qualifying match for the European Championships. My other ...
A Letter Of Complaint For The Tooth Fairy
I think grown ups should receive some kind of medal for reaching the end of Friday in one piece. There should be a ceremony, cake, and everything. If you man...
Tinder For Blogs
I spent the greater part of last night on a damn fool crusade to find new and interesting blogs to read. The “very clever” plan I formed - or rather stumbled...
The Internet That Time Forgot
I remember back when blogging was “a thing”. It’s worse than that though - I’m one of the reasons blogging happened. No. Really.
The Chainsaw Trouser Trick
When I got up this morning I looked outside and made the snap decision to not wear shorts - for the first time in several days. As long as clients are not v...
Invitations And Discoveries
I was invited to write blog posts for a commercial organisation this morning. For a few moments my head grew to such a size that I was already considering an...
Carrot Cake And Walter Mitty
It’s the last day of May, I’m back in the office, the kids are off school, and I’ve just eaten a huge piece of carrot cake. I would be lying if I didn’t say ...
Getting Up Early
It’s a bank holiday here today. I think the parenting rule book for bank holidays goes something like “lie in bed staring at the ceiling for as long as possi...
So Much For Getting Up Early
While flicking through movies looking for something to watch last night, I almost fell asleep, and thought “what the hell am I doing?”. I remember going to b...
In Search Of Something
It’s 11pm on Sunday evening, and I’m heading off over the horizon of the nearby internet in my trusty rowing boat (otherwise known as old PC in the junk room...
Rugby Trophy Moms Fashion Blogs And Grumpy Old Men
It’s 3:30pm on Saturday afternoon. I am supposed to be cutting the lawn, but the lawn mower has decided to stop working. I’ve busied myself with repeatedly f...
Friday
When I arrived in the office this morning I had a couple of ideas for blog posts in my head. Those ideas have now vanished. I should really write ideas down ...
Falling Through The Cracks
This week has seemed to be all about getting on the treadmill, and running as fast as you can to get nowhere. I’ve been head down writing Javascript and Powe...
Video Games Of My Recent Past
It’s rare that I play video games these days, despite the fact that I’ve been buying up the XBox 360 games from the bargain bins for months. I thought it mig...
I Cant Even
For the last several days I have been head down on a project at work. Writing code pretty much from the moment I arrive on a morning, to the moment I leave o...
Wqlt Q107
I have a confession to make. Even though I live in a country awash with fantastic radio stations, where internet radio has exploded over the last few years, ...
Seduced By Snapchat
I should have seen it coming. I really should. I installed Snapchat for the first time about a year ago, and removed it within hours because the interface wa...
In The Inbetween
I’m sitting in the dark of the study, listening to the soundtrack from the TV show “Mr Robot” via Spotify. Amazon wanted to charge full price for it - they c...
Retro
I seem to be going backwards at the moment. While most people probably write blog posts on mobile devices, to social platforms such as Tumblr, I’ve done some...
The Day After The Night Before
At perhaps 7pm last night we arrived alongside the river in a nearby town to board a huge river-boat for the evening - to meet up with all the current, and s...
Eating Cookies In An Empty Office
It’s Friday morning, and I find myself sitting alone in the office. Alone on the entire floor of the building. I bought cookies on the way in for the few peo...
I Just Cant Help Myself
When I renamed my Tumblr account earlier this week, I had all the intentions in the world of just using Tumblr going forwards - of keeping things simple. The...
Haircut City
Tomorrow night the great and the good at the company I work for are getting on a river boat filled to the gunnels with food and alcohol in order to celebrate...
Starting With Nothing
The past couple of days have been an endless slog - either helping other people with their code at work, or trying to uncover the nature of the horrors clien...
Finishing Early
A little after 2:30pm the phone rang on my desk at work. I picked up pretty much staight away, and stumbled over saying good morning, or good afternoon - sti...
Choosing Tumblr
After thinking quietly about this for the last few weeks - about the madness of cross-posting all over the place, or playing off one blogging platform agains...
Change Is Good
I had all the intentions in the world of switching the name of this blog in readiness for the new WordPress “.blog” domains becoming available later this yea...
Avoidance Is A Way Of Life
People need to realise that the dependable guy - that trudges along behind everybody else, fixing things, picking things up, catching people, and throwing ev...
Beginning The Next Chapter Of A Blogging Adventure
It sometimes feels like this blog has been on an epic journey around the internethosted by all manner of platforms, and migrated between all of the major blo...
Returning To Stormwind
I must be mad. While writing this, the installer for World of Warcraft is quietly ticking over in the backgroundconstructing a portal to potentially the bigg...
From A Distance
The office I work from is in the depths of a country estate alongside the River Thames, which snakes past on it’s way towards London, the south east of Engla...
Missing A Day
I didn’t post anything on the blog yesterday. I’m not sure why. Unless I post this in the next half an hour, the absenteeism will stretch out to two daysunhe...
My Own Worst Enemy
While catching up on email a few days ago, I wrote a short message to a friend I have not heard from for some timeinquiring how she was. She writes a blog ov...
Not Playing The Game
I don’t play “the game”.By “the game”, I’m talking about the attention seeking, the chasing of traffic, the attempted attraction of followers, and the seekin...
A Weekend Filled With Football And Dance
I’m sitting in the dark of the study on my own, a little after 9pm on Sunday night, contemplating the remaining few hours of the weekend. It’s tempting to sa...
Doing Nothing On Purpose
It’s Friday night, and I’ve been kicking around the house doing nothing on purposewhich sounds tremendously lazy, but given the week I’ve had, hopefully nobo...
Other People Have Evenings
It’s just gone 11pm. This is first chance I have really had to sit down and do what I want since getting out of bed at 7am this morning. I didn’t even get to...
The One Where The New Bike Arrived
I worked from home this morningpartly to keep an eye on our eldest daughterwho will remain another subject for another time for quite some time to comeand pa...
Rediscovering Half Life 2
While searching through GoG (“Good Old Games”a wonderful retro games website) last night for something to play, I suddenly remembered that there is still an ...
Emily
Once upon a timewhile wandering the internet in search of interesting, thought provoking blogs to followI discovered one of perhaps the most exceptional blog...
Charge Plug 0
After a couple of hours reading reviews, and weighing up the various pros and cons, I put an order in for a new bike this morninga “Charge Plug 0”. It’s a si...
Bank Holiday Weekend
The house seems strangely quiet this morning. Our younger daughterswho would normally be into the second hour of a Mario Kart marathon by noware not here. Th...
Land Of The Pretty People
From the moment I packed the children off to school this morning, I sat down at the computer in the junk room, and raced to help one of my co-workers prepare...
There And Back Again
In time honoured tradition I woke up five minutes before the alarm clock was scheduled to go off. Squinting across the corner of the bed, the numbers slowly ...
Leaving Early
It’s half past two in the afternoon, and I’m watching my work laptop backup a virtual machine. I’m headed to far flung client sites to demonstrate software t...
Time For A New Bike
On the way home from work on Friday evening, the gears at the rear of my mountain bike started to misbehave. Given that the front mech had seized about six m...
Retro Computing
This post was written on a retro “G3” iMac in the corner of the junk room we somewhat convincingly call the “Study” at home. We bought the iMac from eBay abo...
Steve Jobs
We finally watched the Aaron Sorkin movie “Steve Jobs” last nightstreamed as a rental from Amazon.
Dont Spare The Horses
The greater part of the afternoon turned into a clock watching exercise, where I tinkered with a mountain of source code while trying not to get too sucked i...
Alone In The Hotel
Today is Wednesday, and the third evening of self-imposed incarceration in the hotel. I’m half tempted to wander across the road to the pub, just to see if i...
My Own Worst Enemy
You wouldn’t believe what I have been doing since the moment I got back to the hotel if I told you. I’m going to tell you anyway, because that’s the special ...
The Journey North
“The Journey North” sounds tremendously romanticI’m imagining Svaldbard, and huge armored polar bears. Unfortunately my journey is taking me a few thousands ...
Organising The Archives
I’ve decided to start out on a somewhat long, somewhat arduous process, which will be helped in no uncertain terms by the skill-set I bring to it. I’m probab...
Mad Weekend
Last night we attended the “Spring Fling” social gathering at the local junior school. I don’t think we drankthat much, but we both felt the after-effects th...
Fa Cup Semi Final
This afternoon we took our youngest daughter to watch Chelsea Ladies play Manchester City in the FA Cup Semi Final. It’s worth pointing out that Miss 11 is f...
The One Where The Evening Descended Into Comedy
On Monday lunchtimeI’m travelling to the other end of the country with workheaded towards a hotel on the outskirts of a northern city to live in a hotel for ...
Stopping The Madness
I’m stopping the cross-posting madness. For the last several months I had been cross-posting between WordPress, Tumblr, and LiveJournal. I’ve had enough of i...
Ghost In The Shell
Who knew that Scarlett Johansson was going to be playing Motoko Kusanagi in a big-budget live-action version of Ghost in the Shell ?If you have no idea what ...
Once Upon A Time
Once upon a time I used to write a personal blog. It was filled with candid moments from the day. It was interesting, in a slightly voyeuristic way. It told ...
Tinkering
This evening I have been mostly tinkering with a sort-of-secret projectexcept it’s not so secret any more because I uploaded it to GitHub (meaningI’ve immedi...
Boys Night Out
In order to celebrate the birthday of one of our friends, the “other halves” got together and organised a night out for us all, because apparently if they ha...
Swimming
A few moments after stepping from the shower this morning, the children arrived downstairs exhibiting quite the craziest bed-heads I had seen in some time. T...
Fighting Mediocrity
For the last several weeks and months this blog has been a shadow of it’s former self. I used to write at length about nothing in particularI used to be good...
The Friendship River
Imagine your life is a river. It starts quietly, calmly, and slowly, but as time passes it travels, grows, experiences turbulence, droughts, floods, good tim...
Alone In An Infinite Ocean
One of the most difficult things about becoming friends with people on the internet is that you only really know them through the photos and words they share...
Anonymous In London
I returned to London for a meeting with a potential client todaythe first time back in the city for a while. I got a lift to one of the nearby railway statio...
Getting The Suit Ready
Mid-morning tomorrow I board thetrain once more, headed towards central London to visit a prospective client of the company I work for. Instructions are for ...
All The Presidents Men
I watched the movie “All the President’s Men” last night on the iPad while sitting in bed, keeping half an ear our for our teenage daughter, who was havingan...
Distracted On Sunday Morning
I woke a little after 6am this morning, rolled over, looked at my bedside clock, and immediately fell back asleep. I have vague memories of my other half arr...
1930
My Uncle posted this photo to Facebook a few days agothe man on the left of the photo is my GrandfatherFredalong with fellow captains of the John Harker ship...
Obama
While reading about the mayhem surrounding the various potential nominees for the presidential election in the United States, I can’t help being reminded of ...
Rudderless
I’m sitting in the lounge, with the iPad and the Bluetooth keyboard propped on my lap. Figure this one outas I type, the keyboard slides gently to the rightv...
Thursday
This is going to be interesting. I bought a new app for the iPad last nightthe first app I’ve actually parted with money for in the Apple App Store in about ...
Keeping My Mouth Shut Is Hard
It struck me this evening just how many thoughts I bury. While reading posts at WordPress, Tumblr, Twitter, or even Facebook (which I try to stay the hell aw...
Late Lunch Break
Here we are again. I ate my lunch at half past twelve, but carried on workingit’s now 3:30pm. I have a conference call in an hourand am sorely tempted to dow...
Have I Really Changed
I received a nice message from somebody thismorning somebody who used to be “somebody” on Tumblr. As far as I was concerned,she was one of the “Tumblr A-List...
Make The Voices Stop
I noticed earlier this evening that my Tumblr account has gained theability to write comments on other people’s posts, and to see comments written by others....
Watching From The Shadows
I often feel like the world is passing me by. I get up each day, go to work, bash my head against the desk for a few hours, return home, do chores and go to ...
Dawn Of Justice
Following the football match we were supposed to be watching this afternoon being called off, I managed to sneak off to the cinema this afternoon and watch “...
Inventing Chocolate Egg Fairies
What is Easter to you ? To me it’s a time or the year when we eat enough chocolate to render a large Rhinoceros very poorly indeed. To many others it’s a tim...
The One Where I Bought My Own Easter Egg
I went shopping at 4pm this afternoon for Easter eggsbecause otherwise our kids wouldn’t have had any at all. Let’s try to ignore that my other half spent th...
Not All Friendships Are Equal
I wrote some time agothat writing a public blog on the internet feels a lot like sitting in the middle of the street, with your life scattered around for pas...
A Secret Loneliness
While swimming against the tide for months or years on end, struggling to keep your head above waterto keep your boat pointing in vaguely the right direction...
Pancakes For Breakfast
Today is a bank holiday in the UK. Despite the separation of Church and State here, Easter dictates that everybody gets Friday and Mondayoff. I’m not complai...
Plodding Onwards
It’s Thursday morning before the bank holiday weekend. I have a conference call in a little while hence the appearance of the headset on my desk. Work has be...
Second Coffee
I’m working from home once again. Mid morning. Two coffees down. I don’t really have anything to share, other than I somehow managed not to write a blog post...
Manhattan
I’ve been sittingat the ramshackle desk in the room we laughingly call “the study” for the last half hour, doing everythingexcept write a blog post. It’s not...
The One Where We Watched Paul Again
After flicking through the channels last night looking for something to watch after the kids had gone to bed, I noticed that “Paul” was just starting, sosudd...
Early Start
I began writing this post at 5:45am on Sunday morning. I got up early to watch the first Formula One grand prix of the year from Melbourne, Australia. While ...
Growing Up
After arriving home from work a little early with a streaming cold, making myself a cup of tea, and slumping down on the couch in the living room, our younge...
A Long Day
The alarm clock went off at 5:30am. It’s a good job it did, because my body clock failed spectacularly. Normally it would wake me up a couple of minutes befo...
Zero Maintainance Haircut
A time window opened up this morning to get to the barbers in town, and get my hair chopped back to a more manageable length (read: a length where I have to ...
Instant Messaging
With a not-very-heavy heart at all, I’m removing KIK from my mobile phone today. I was only using it to keep in touch with a couple ofpeople, and even then p...
Tired And Hungry
This “not eating between meals” lark is hardespecially when you live in a house filled with daughters who seem to subsist on nothing but snacks. I just walke...
Today Is Not Pi Day
I’ve been avoiding “Pi Day” posts on the internet all day, and while avoiding them, an anger has been bubbling up slowly and steadily. It’s no good. I’m goin...
The End Of Eating Rubbish
In order to help our middle daughter shed a few pounds, we’re all going to take part, because we are all a little way from where we should be (hell, who am I...
Breaking Rhythm
For months I have been a blogging automaton of sortsposting something or other each dayrain or shine. And yet, over the last week I have missed day after day...
Falling Over The Finish Line
This week has beena slog, for all sorts of reasons that I’m not about to write in a public blog post. I wish I could, but it wouldn’t solve anything. Let’s j...
Being Bad Cop
This week I have had to turn the tables on our eldest daughteraway from the classic father-daughter relationship. I became the line in the sand. I’m the one ...
The Internet Returns
Before we get started, it’s probably worth mentioning the origin of the picture accompanying this post.It’s a still from the Studio Ghibli movie “The Cat Ret...
In Limbo
Iwasworking from home this morningright up until the moment our telephone and internet connections cut out. Today is the day we become members of the modern ...
Working From Home
I’m working from home for the greater part of this weekto provide a catch-net for our eldest daughter again. Let’s just say she’s finding growing up harder t...
Weird Dreams
I went to bed ridiculously early last night, and then slept straight through. I guess “straight through” is relative thoughafter sleeping for 8 hours I woke ...
Song Of The Sea
We watched the animated movie “Song of the Sea” this evening with the children. I had desperately wanted to see it at the cinema after seeing the trailers at...
The Destruction Of Beauty
If you’re somebody that has worked damn hard to look the way you do, don’tever feel guilty about posting photos of yourself on the social internet. Just reme...
I Have A Stationary Problem
In-between helping our youngest daughter choose presents and a card for mothers day (which is tomorrow on this side of the world), Ijust happened to be passi...
Being The Devils Advocate
While talking to a friend earlier this evening about the nature of relationships, and interactions between people online, I started thinking about the lines ...
Eating Chocolate Cookies
I’m sitting in the dark of the study at home eating chocolate cookies, on my own. The rest of the family are having a “movie night”, watching the movie “Jesu...
43Rd Lap
I have now been a living, breathing creaturefor the time it takes the ball of mud we all share to hurtle aroundan insignificant G type main sequence star 43 ...
A Long Day
Today was kind of forgettable. Not all of itjust some of it. As has become normal recently, my journey home from a distant client site was interrupted by a p...
The Liebster Award
Having switched blogging platforms for the umpteenth time last week, I was shocked, stunned and amazed to discover that somebodyobviously of wonderful judgem...
Breaking The Streak
It just occurred to me that I haven’t written a blog post since Saturdaywhich breaks a streak where I posted every day for quite some time (I’m too lazy to a...
Upgrading The Filofax
You might think, given that I work as a software and web developer in the daytime, and carry a mobile phone in my pocket that’s perpetuallyconnected to Googl...
Fourteen Nill
You know that one where you’re standing with some of the other parents at the start of the game, half keeping an eye on your middle daughter who is busy walk...
Ruminations About Blogging Platforms
Since the beginning of the yearI have been experimenting with various blogging platforms. Rather than post my inane ramblings to one platform, I have been cr...
Youve Got Mail
It’s Thursday night, my other half has gone to visit friends, the children are in bed, and I just spent longer than might feasibly be imagined choosing a mov...
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
I have a guilty secret. I like reading young adult fiction. Don’t get me wrongI still love reading “books for grown-ups”, but sometimes I just want to switch...
Tending To Be Different
Following recurring thoughts about separation of blogging concerns in recent days, I finally caved last night and began pulling apart the components I had so...
Calling Home
If I’m working in the officewhich is only a few miles from home -before leaving todo battle with the evening commuter traffic on the mountain bike I invariab...
The One Where I Empty My Head
I’ve had so many random thoughts churning around my head recentlyif I don’t get them out of my head and onto a page, it feels like they will just drift awayl...
Strange Attraction
Last night provided further evidence towards the hypothesis I formed some time agothat I am a strange attractor. I’ve suspected for some time. If you’re wond...
Backing Up
Twenty years ago, I was working in an office where the only form of backup was a tape drive that we ran every month or so to copy the entire contents of the ...
Thoughts About Blogging
While reading various posts from a number of different corners of the internet recentlyand no, I’m not going to name anybody, or anywhere, because I’m not th...
Appearances Can Be Deceptive
You would thinkbeing a professional software and web developer in the daytimethat I would have some sort of kick-ass computer hardware at my disposal away fr...
Behold The New Bag Of Inifinite Holding
While travelling back from Cornwall on the train with the children on Thursday, our youngest daughter pointed out that my trusty backpack had not one, but fi...
A Few Of My Favourite Things
When I sat down to compile this list earlier this evening, I was planning on putting a blogroll together, but then it kind of morphed into this post. Before ...
Cards Against Humanity
Oh. My. Word. We went for a meal at a friend’s house last night, and after eating lots of wonderful food, and drinking lots of wonderful wine, we got out “Ca...
The Journey Home
We’re heading home from the coast today after the better part of a week spent with my parents. I packed the children’s bags yesterday afternoon, and we spent...
Another Day Another Adventure
After waking up a little after 7 this morning, I dragged myself out of bed, stumbled off in the direction of the shower and re-enacted the morning scenes of ...
Talking To Myself
If you read the perceived wisdom of professional bloggers on the internet, they emphasise the importance of having an “about” page. I’m not sure I entirely a...
Slowing Down Is Difficult
I woke up at 6am this morning, when the alarm clock on my phone eruptedI had forgotten to disable it. After falling asleep for a while, and then staring at t...
Fresh Air Hills And Crashing Waves
After a trip out to the pub with my parents earlier for lunch, I noticed the sky was slowly clearing, and asked the kids who would like to have a walk down t...
Escaping To The Coast
This morning the alarm clock erupted at 7am, and started playing music from the local radio station. After watching the minutes tick by for a while, I eventu...
Final Day In London
After the initial shock of getting upand leaving the house before sunrise, the routine became easier throughout the week. I didn’t read the books queued on t...
Pretending To Be A Teacher
I walked the route from Paddington to Euston again this morning. Despite the sub-zero temperatures, the sun shone, and made the 40 minute walk a pleasure, ra...
Slowly Losing Track Of The Days
The journey in this morning was almost entirely uneventfulalthough I am starting to devote a dark corner of my brain to the behaviour of the staff that sell ...
Notes From Euston Station
When I arrived at Paddington station this morning, the concourse was filled with people waiting for the underground to open it’s gates againthey close it whe...
Early Mornings
I’m back in London this weekwhich means getting up at 6am to catch the 7am trainor, as happened this morning, getting up at 6:15am to stumble around the hous...
All Kinds Of Awesome
I took our youngest daughter into London todayprimarily to do some research for her school project board on volcanoes. Each couple of terms the children are ...
Being The Square Peg
While listening to a podcast this morning they talked about the increasingly desperate tactics employed by Apple to sell more iPhones. It turns out the lates...
An Unexpected Day Alone
The plan had been to head out this morning with my other half, and the younger children to stand on the touchline of a muddy football pitch for an hour, befo...
Working From Home
The day started like any other in recent timesthe children didn’t get out of bed, then complained that we hadn’t woken them up (I think they’ll find we did, ...
Is Tumblr In Trouble
While cycling to work this morning, I was listening to the DTNS podcast, and Tom Merritt mentioned the numbers reported by Yahoo yesterdayand chief among the...
Being A Busy Idiot
The beginning of the day should have been a portent. I don’t have to be in the office until 9am most mornings, and I only work 3 miles from homewhich is why ...
Tom George And Sam
We have three children, therefore we have three cats. Once each. Simple. We acquired them from a farm house when they were kittensthe last three brothers of ...
Reboot Hell
I’m slowly going out of my mindrunning updates again, and again, and again on a server so I can demonstrate something to a client tomorrow afternoon. To even...
The Return Of The X Files
I remember when The X-Files first started. People think of television series as “hits” now, but they really pale in comparison. I guess you have to remember ...
Normal Service Resumed
I’ve written quite enough about blogging, writing, the internet, technology, and various other geeky crap recently. It’s time I got back to the head emptying...
Connecting More Dots
I am experimenting with the machinery of the vast and mighty internet once again. I’m not sure it will actually come to anything, but it will be interesting....
Unexpected Visitors
Something unexpected happened this week. A friend from the “real world” let slip that she had been reading my blog. While I shouldn’t be at all surprised tha...
Sunday Rugby
Today I will be mostly sitting in a car with a stranger, to get a lift to a far-flung rugby match that our middle daughter is playing in. Three quarters of a...
Cadbury World
Our middle girl had two friends stay for a sleepover last night. They all retreated upstairs at about 10pm, with rules put in place that they could stay up a...
Another Week In London
I was back in the office todaymadly scrambling through email, timesheets, filing expenses, and attempting to finish work that had been slotted into my calend...
Lets Play A Game
Let’s arrive at Paddington railway station, needing to go to the toilet. Let’s pretend we have no money in our pockets at all, due to the wonders of bank car...
Night Falls In Oxford Circus
While walking along Regent Street towards Oxford Circus this evening, a gap in the traffic exposed the rain soaked roads, and suddenly drab, cold, noisy Lond...
Anonymity Idiocy And People Watching
Today was only interesting in that I managed to navigate the vagueries of the Great Western Railway, the London Underground, two different Starbucks coffee h...
The Emperors New Clothes
At 5:40am this morning, my body performed it’s remarkable trick of waking up ahead of the alarm clock programmed for 6am. I rolled over, felt for a mobile ph...
Regent Street In 11 Hours
In 11 hours time I will walk into the office of a client just off Regent Street in London, dressed in a shirt, tie, khaki jeans, and brown shoes. I will have...
Blocking Calls
If I ever work from home, or I’m off work with some life threatening lurgy, or looking after one of the children when they are chundering spectacularly from ...
Contents Of The Bag Of Holding
There is no end to the ideas I will come up with for blog posts when I have better things to be getting on with (like loading the washing machine, or tidying...
And Just Like That It Was Gone
Late last night I clicked the “destroy” button in the Digital Ocean dashboard that would essentially pull the plug from the bathwater of the “We The Users” w...
Lies Damn Lies And Statistics
Now this blog has been sitting out here on the internet for a few weeks, I thought it might be interesting to look at the numbers (paltry though they are).
Seduced By Sibelius
Earlier this week I decided I needed to detach from the internet for at least a couple of evenings, so did the natural thing that any self respecting couch p...
Running Around In Circles
Today has been interesting. From the cycle to work through insane traffic, to the morning conference call where somebody accidentally said more than they sho...
Untangling Tangled Things
There I was, sitting down to enjoy the rather pathetic lunch I had made as an afterthought before leaving the house this morning, leaning over the keyboard m...
The Experiment Comes To An End
I am pulling the plug on WeTheUsers at the end of the week. It’s a curious feelingwalking away from something that’s quite good, and that lots of other peopl...
Everything You Never Knew You Wanted To Know About Me
This post is going to break records as the longest post in the entire blog. I just spent my entire lunch break writing it. If I had looked at the number of q...
Why I Dont Write A Technical Blog Any More
For many years I wrote two blogs on the internetone where I recorded life the universe and everything (read: hopes, dreams, idiotic thoughts, daily life, etc...
Football Football And More Football
This weekend was dominated from start to finish by football matches for our youngest daughter. She played with the newly formed under 11 girls team on Saturd...
Small World Problems
I’ve been writing blog posts, posting in forums, and taking part in social networks for yearssince beforethe beginning of the world wide web.
Removing Facebook From My Phone
I removed Facebook and Facebook Messenger from my phone yesterday. I’m not deleting the account entirely, because it’s useful to have the account (there are ...
Combatting The Lurgy
Today finds me holed up at home, making worryingly regular visits to the downstairs bathroom. Let’s just say my insides seem to want to become my outsides. N...
Avoiding The Onslaught
While checking the news at lunchtime I happened to glance at Twitter as the news broke that the actor Alan Rickman had died. No doubt the massed ranks of the...
12 Years Old
Soit’s officialour middle daughter has been alive for twelve orbits of the sun. Nine of those orbits have been spent with us as her parentswe adopted her whe...
It All Started With The Notebooks
The town I grew up in had an open-air market that took place on Thursdays. You could find everything from electrical goods, to denim jeans, to cuts of meat f...
A False Sense Of Entitlement
Something has been annoying me more and more in recent yearswhich is surprising, given the number of things that annoy me on a regular basis. People. People ...
Syndication
After a weekend filled with olympic levels of procrastination,tinkering, and really quite useless meddling, the words and pictures I post to the blog will no...
A Little More Conversation
In the slightly reckless spirit of making it easier for random passers by to comment on the various posts at jonbeckett.com, I have swapped out the default c...
Sunday Morning 10Am
Ok, so it’s really 10:28am as I begin typing this, but if I wrote the time accurately it would be an even bigger distortion of the Paul Simon song title “Wed...
A Dangerous Business
For the last several years I have only really followed a handful of blogssome of them discovered during the inaugural running of “NaBloPoMo” (National Blog P...
The One Where The Beautiful Lady Cut All My Hair Off
Given that the unruly mop atop my head was verging towards “that bloke that doesn’t look after himself”, I figured I should get my hair cut this morning.
Here All Year
I just changed the billing behind this blog to “yearly”, meaning this little island on the internet will remain above water at least until January 2017. Ther...
Hi Ho Hi Ho Its Off To Work I Go
After a morning spent sitting in a council office waiting to tell the life story of our eldest daughter to a social worker who seemed to know nothing about a...
An Unexpected Day Off
Well this is a surprise. I had planned on looking after the children today while the schools in town had an “inset” day (teacher training).My other half is “...
The Force Awakens Again
This evening we took the children, and my mother in law, to see “Star Wars : The Force Awakens” for a second time. This post is going to have spoilers. I’m a...
Resisting Temptation
Over the past several months I have closed accounts at LiveJournal, WordPress, and Tumblrwith the end goal being simplicityone place to write onlineone place...
Deconstructing Christmas
I’m not entirely sure how I managed to wake up at a half-sensible time this morning. After racing home from the cinema we bought a metric ton of pizza, wine,...
Happy New Year
We spent yesterday evening counting down the final hours of 2015 in the company of good friendseating, drinking, and playing ridiculous games (have you heard...