Reconnecting
Well, here we are again. Another January 1st has rolled around, and with it, that familiar hum of “new year, new me.” This is where many people launch into g...
Posts
- 2026 1
- 2025 147
- 2024 144
- 2023 180
- 2022 189
- 2021 206
- 2020 261
- 2019 282
- 2018 312
- 2017 369
- 2016 403
- 2015 342
- 2014 254
- 2013 210
- 2012 242
- 2011 535
- 2010 416
- 2009 295
- 2008 355
- 2007 263
- 2006 299
- 2005 161
- 2004 106
- 2003 85
2026
2025
Far from the madding crowd
As the final hours of 2025 ebbed away, I sat on the sofa with a laptop, quietly lifting 22 years worth of blog posts into the air - to land them far from the...
Boxing Day
After falling off the internet in recent days, I reached out to a few friends around the world this morning - wishing them a happy “Boxing Day”, and none of ...
Christmas Day
Somehow we’ve made it through Christmas in one piece.
Work, chores and strictly
It’s been a few days again. A few days since I last emptied my head into the keyboard. I’m not sure where the last week went, to be honest. Work, chores, and...
On the outside, looking in
I went to my other half’s work Christmas party as her “plus one” last night. It was interesting - being the person on the outside, looking in on the work fri...
In search of my lost tribe
I don’t recognise the internet any more. Walled cities have proliferated, filled with newcomers, settlers, and homesteaders - who invariably join each other ...
A Moveable Feast
It occurred to me this morning that I’m becoming invisible. As wave after wave of new generations enter the scene from stage left, I’m increasingly the fool ...
Unnecessarily Difficult
A few months ago I switched from Android to iPhone. In the process of doing so, somebody somewhere sold my phone number to a marketing moron, and before I kn...
The Glyptotek and Tivoli Gardens
Yesterday morning we set out bright and early for the “Glyptotek” - a vanity project built by Carl Jacobsen - the son of the founder of the Carlsberg breweri...
Oats, Harbours, Mermaids and Glogg
Today was very much a day of new things. A breakfast of overnight oats, a pilgrimage of sorts, a marching military band, a mermaid, an open sandwich and a gl...
Copenhagen
After a 5am alarm call, a taxi at 6am, and breakfast at Heathrow airport, we finally took off a little before 9am, and set off towards Copenhagen, Denmark. W...
It wasn’t always this way
You know the one where you’ve been promising to yourself to write something for days, but then this interesting thing appears in your peripheral vision, or t...
Fifteen Minutes
I started writing this blog post fifteen minutes before the end of my lunch break at work - after losing the rest of my lunch break washing clothes, clearing...
An Early Night
After an early night last night, I have been up since 3:45 this morning. I got up to watch the Grand Prix in Las Vegas - which turned out to be not worth wat...
The Importance of Being Earnest
We made our way into London yesterday evening to watch Stephen Fry starring as Lady Bracknell in “The Importance of Being Earnest”. It didn’t quite work out ...
Drinking the Kool Aid
I left Cornwall mid-morning yesterday after a long promised visit to my parents. The journey home felt oddly detached - with no mobile signal and no data con...
South West
After working throughout the entire summer, and disappearing for one long weekend during that time, I finally shut my computer down on Friday evening with no...
Nuremberg
We went to the cinema this evening, and watched an advance screening of “Nuremberg”, starring Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, and Michael Shannon.
Half Past Lunchtime on Sunday
It’s half past lunchtime on Sunday, and you find me hiding out in the junk room at home, listening to a singer-songwriter playlist. Randy Newman is singing t...
How is it nearly Thursday already?
I just looked at the clock in the corner of the computer screen after consciously trying to figure out what day of the week it was. Where did Wednesday go? N...
Parties and Leftovers at Chore City
Two of our oldest friends hosted a joint 50th birthday party at the rowing club in town last night. If I’m entirely honest, neither of us really wanted to go...
To By Young
What is the “right” age to act? What if the most authentic version of “you” is still a little bit… sticky-fingered and prone to spontaneous laughter?
Lights in the Sky
One of the current WordPress writing prompts asks “what historical event fascinates you the most ?”
Quiet Days Vogon Poetry and Impossible Creaters
After spending so many years surrounded by chaos at home, it always feels a little bit odd when travelling to find life suddenly becalmed. So much so that I ...
The Journey West
After a wonderfully unplanned night out with friends last night, we scraped ourselves out of bed this morning, threw clothes into travel bags, and set off to...
An Accidental Writer
Today’s Wordpress writing prompt asks what alternative career paths you have considered, or are interested in.
Long Weekend
The clock ticked into Friday ten minutes ago, and you find me almost giddy with the prospect of not returning to work until Tuesday next week. A long weekend...
While Making Other Plans
In early 2006, after discovering I have a rare genetic defect, after a third and final unsuccessful attempt at IVF, and after gazing into the yawning crater ...
Round in Circles
Sunday Earlier this year - at home - I switched my phone from a Google Pixel to an Apple iPhone, my desktop computer from a PC to a Mac mini, my laptop from ...
Half Past My Bedtime
The clock ticked past midnight ten minutes ago. You find me sitting in the dark of the junk room, perched in front of the Mac with a mug of coffee while Joni...
One Foot in Front Of The Other
Today’s writing prompt asks what principles define how you live. I wouldn’t say I necessarily have many principals – but I have coping mechanisms.
A Step Back in Time
We attended the party of a wonderful friend yesterday evening to help celebrate her 50th birthday. The invitation requested 80s themed fancy dress.
One Virtual World
Today’s WordPress writing prompt asks who you might give a million dollars to, if you had a million dollars to give away.
Decompression
I’m having a “night off” tonight. Trying to slow down. Listening to music. Noodling around with this and that on the Mac. Not really achieving anything, and ...
Be Careful What You Wish For
Aviation has been a common thread throughout my life – from the giant red encyclopedia that was ever present in our house, to the balsa Tiger Moth my Dad mad...
Sunday morning in Spoons
I’m sitting in Wetherspoons this morning, feeling incredibly smug to have bagged a table in a booth. Doing so seems to depend on arriving before 9:30.
One computer to rule them all
I’m sitting, writing this post while holed up in the junk room at home. I’m sitting in front of a desk with two monitors on it – one connected to a hulking P...
Taylor and the quiet rebellion
Taylor Swift’s new album “The Life of a Showgirl” arrived this morning. As a fifty-something guy that invariably listens to retro radio stations targeted at ...
Life without Computers
Can you imagine what life would be like without a computer? I’m old enough that I don’t need to imagine it – I can remember it.
The Need to Slow Down
While racing from one thing to another throughout a typical day, I rarely give any thought to what I might not do – I’m invariably consumed with what I have ...
An Evening at the Theatre
After spending much of the weekend hiding from the world with a nasty cold, we ventured out tonight rather than waste the theatre tickets we bought over a ye...
Six Days
Six Days Six days have somehow passed since I last wrote - there’s quite a lot to unpack. I’m not really sure where to start, if I’m honest.
Pottering
I’m having a day off from everything today. Well… I say everything, but I’ve filled the washing machine three times. Who knew that chores are a great excuse ...
Cult Movies and Atomic Apparel
The clock ticked past 11pm a few minutes ago. It’s been six days since I last posted. I’m not entirely sure where the week went. I haven’t been out running. ...
Favourite Foods
There’s writing prompt at Wordpress today asking “what are your favourite types of foods”. To be honest, it would be easier to list the foods I don’t like, r...
An Adventure in London
After setting the alarm clock to go off at 7am this morning - affording me an hour to have a wash, get dressed, and get to the railway station, my wonderful ...
Everything, Everywhere, Again
At some point yesterday - nearly five days later than planned - and now with most of the holiday gone when I might have stage managed the migration smoothly ...
Escape
This morning you find me holed up in a corner of Wetherspoons - escaping from the world for an hour. I’ve just made a “small American breakfast” disappear, a...
Trying to slow down
After a dinner-table conversation last weekend, somehow I agreed to escort my eldest daughter to a nearby town with a ginormous shopping centre. I didn’t act...
A Day in the City
After escaping the house a little after 9am this morning, we made our way to the local railway station, collected tickets, and jumped on the first post rush-...
Everything, Everywhere
After watching the inexorable march of Substack towards the same commercially driven hellscape as countless platforms before it, I’ve been scouting around fo...
Nine Days
In the midst of feeling pretty depleted last night, a wonderful friend reminded me that I have nine days to make my own stretched out in front of me. Nine da...
Strawberry jam on toast versus the common cold
While brushing my teeth a few days ago, it occurred to me that I haven’t been sick for quite some time. Months. Not since this time last year, when I ended u...
The one where I flooded the kitchen
While taking a break from work this morning, I wandered into the kitchen and decided that the clothes rack had been standing in everybody’s way for quite lon...
Faking It
A few days ago while walking home from town the cogs at the back of my brain started turning. I’m not entirely sure why they started turning, but they did, a...
Escapology and Weird Dreams
I discovered this morning that I can’t listen to a podcast and write at the same time - I end gazing into space and listening rather than writing anything. M...
The Extroverted Introvert Corollary
A few days ago I made the colossal mistake of setting foot into the “social internet” in search of hopefully kindred spirits - or “Unicorns” as I labelled th...
The Saturday Spoons Ritual Continues
I woke with a start at 7:30am this morning - to the sound of a door being slammed downstairs. Cogs turned in my head, and a member conjured itself from somew...
The almost impossible search for unicorns
I started writing a blog before the word “blog” had entered common parlance.
Escape
It occurred to me this morning that I’m not so much living in an escape room - rather an escape life. Except I’m not really trying to escape - just becoming ...
A somewhat accidental Swiftie
Some years ago - while chatting with an old friend (and wonderful singer) in Oklahoma, the subject of music came up, and I asked what she was listening to - ...
When does today become tomorrow?
While writing this (after procrastinating famously for the last hour), the clock is busy ticking past 1am - or rather, it did so about 10 minutes ago. I’m ri...
The table for one problem
It’s Saturday morning, and you find me sitting in the middle of the huge Wetherspoons in town - escaping the house for a cooked breakfast and a “bottomless” ...
Not good at switching off
After burning the candle at both ends over the last few days, I pushed back a little today. Or rather I had all the good intentions of doing so, and then did...
Breakfast at Wetherspoons
This morning you find me holed up in a booth at our local Wetherspoons - part of a huge pub chain that stretches across the country. I’m sitting in the booth...
Hello Midnight, Old Friend
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room - the last person standing in the house as the new day arrives. I’m listening to “Seasons of Love” from the original...
Burning the Candle at Both Ends
Last weekend I installed a writing app called “Day One” onto my laptop, with thoughts of using it to empty my head into about anything and everything - a pla...
Tiredness Abounds
Sunday evening became Monday morning two minutes ago. Normally I would be digging my heels in for another hour and fighting the arrival of tomorrow for as lo...
Chasing Elphaba
There comes a point where you get thrown under the bus so often, you start to see it as strangely normal. Not a shock or surprise. It gets to the point where...
The journey to the dark side is complete
We went out this morning in search of some new tea, coffee and sugar containers for the kitchen. The old ones had been knocking around the kitchen since the ...
Seven Days
It’s been seven days since I last wrote. Seven days of work, chores, drama, and mayhem. The last two days particularly so.
Has anyone seen my bicycle?
I’ve commented in the past about falling off the internet bicycle - somehow not finding the time to keep up with anything, or catch up with anybody. I’ve dec...
Mailing it in
The clock ticked past midnight three quarters of an hour ago.
I’m still here
Another week has whistled past. Again, I’m not entirely sure where it went. I didn’t run. I didn’t read. I did listen to music though. I’m listening to music...
Out of the loop
I think I may have unwittingly succeeded in departing the loop entirely.
Chasing my own tail
Where the hell has the last week gone? Seriously. You look away for a few seconds and several day have passed.
Fathers Day
It’s “Father’s Day” in the UK today - a tradition that seems to have been adopted from the US at some point in the distant past - quite obviously a commercia...
The conversion continues
It’s been a bit of a week. The Windows laptop has been handed on to my eldest daughter, and the Amazon tablet has been handed on to my other half. An iPad ar...
Re-programming my brain
The Mac mini arrived. And the iPhone. The biggest barrier at the moment seems to be my own ability to learn new ways of doing things, or to forget the ways I...
Going All In
My mobile phone came up for renewal last week. After a few days of abject indecision, I finally pulled the trigger on its replacement this afternoon. An iPho...
The apple doesnt fall far
A few days ago my other half mentioned that she had a couple of Macbooks at work that were being retired, and wondered if I might be interested in them. I te...
Week One Run One
After tipping myself out of bed at 7am this morning, I pulled on some running shorts, and headed out of the door to re-start the “Couch to 5K” programme. It’...
Old friends and unread books
I can never quite decide if “having a quiet weekend” is missing out on opportunities to be here, there, and everywhere, or if stepping away from the mayhem i...
Fake it till you make it
After travelling north with several co-workers this morning, we arrived at our destination and temporary home for the next few days - a typical corporate hot...
Preparing to Travel
I have to get up sensibly early tomorrow - to meet at a co-worker’s house ahead of a fairly long journey “up country”. Everybody vaguely technical in the com...
Midnight Again
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room late on Sunday night, listening to Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s album “Who Believes in Angels”. When I first hear...
In search of the time thieves
Somehow it’s half past midnight - or “half past my bedtime”, as my middle daughter might have said when she was young.
Kind of like an exhale
A little while ago - after receiving feedback that subscribers to my blog weren’t altogether happy with Substack marketing things at them I tried switching i...
Eurovision
I’m not really sure when we started watching Eurovision. It’s become a “thing” that we do each year - setting the evening aside with a few drinks and some fo...
We know how to spend our Friday nights
I answered an SOS call on Friday morning from a neighbour. Their internet was being “a bit rubbish” (their words), so rather than headbang the wall for sever...
Everything all the time
Do you ever have those moments where you look away, and several days pass?
Homeward Bound
After waking a little after 8am this morning, and packing our belongings into the back of the car, we took a final stroll into our temporary home. Along the ...
A walk along the river Wye
After waking a little after 8 this morning I performed the inevitable gymnastics around the holiday cottage to have a shower and shave without punching windo...
This world wasnt designed for me
I woke a little after 8 this morning in the grip of the memory foam matress that had mysteriously absorbed my body during the night - forming an odd blacmang...
A Town out of time
After leaving home mid-morning and stopping at an oddly soul-less rest area en-route, we arrived in Hay on Wye early in the afternoon. Against expectations -...
Four Days Away
For the last several years - since the children were old enough - we have escaped for a long weekend in the spring to visit a European city. Just the two of ...
Every Tomorrow
I’m watching the minutes tick down at the end of a three-day weekend and find myself wondering where the time has gone. In truth, it’s been a fairly quiet we...
The Midnight Writing Club
A few months ago I found myself sitting in the dark of the junk room in the dead of night, writing a blog post, and wondered how many other people were doing...
The Unwanted Elephant
While walking home from town earlier today I happened upon a huge unwanted soft-toy of an elephant, sitting quietly at the end of somebody’s driveway, with a...
Dance like nobody is watching
While everybody else was doing other things this evening I found myself spending a rare evening with my youngest daughter - just the two of us. I was pretty ...
Brave New World
After conducting all manner of covert experiments in recent days and weeks - driven by a creeping disdain for the continued and increasingly brazen commoditi...
Gone but not forgotten
While tinkering with something on the internet this evening - and shaking my head at my own idiocy when it comes to not only finding rabbit holes, but active...
Friday night
How is it that if you look away for a few minutes, several days hurtle past? I guess it was a short week anyway - following the Easter long weekend - but sti...
Hello limbo, old friend
Every day seems to crash into the next at the moment. A never ending trudge towards nowhere in particular. Somehow almost a week has passed since I last wro...
The Memory Library
When I write for the blog, the words have recently started out in a note taking application called “Obsidian”. I like it primarily because it writes in plain...
Resisting temptation
I fell down an internet rabbit hole this week. After posting my frustrations with Substack’s increasingly steep slide towards becoming a walled garden, a num...
Last man standing
Everybody else went to bed some time ago. I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room, bathed in the light of the desk lamps while Billy Joel plays the piano an...
On Green Dolphin Street
As the weekend ebbs away and a new week approaches, you find me sitting in the junk room, listening to music, and attempting to shut the rest of the world ou...
Slowly by Surely
After several days of seemingly endless struggling, I started to make progress today. I’ve spent the last two days pulling swathes of example programming to ...
Slowly But Surely
After several days of seemingly endless struggling, I started to make progress today.
Learning Something New
Today marked the beginning of perhaps a long journey into the unknown - learning something entirely new - or new to me at least.
Learning Something Entirely New
Today marked the beginning of perhaps a long journey into the unknown - learning something entirely new - or new to me at least. I’ve been busy reading docum...
An artificially generated alter-ego
I asked an artificially intelligent machine learning algorithm to draw a concept art character of a 50 year old software developer sitting in a room full of ...
The Motherlode
While sitting here in the dark of the junk room, bathed in the light of lamps that stand on either end of the desk, a server farm somewhere is having a quiet...
Birthdays and Music
Do you ever get to the end of the weekend, and wonder not only where it went, but also what you spent it doing? Last night I sat in bed, wondering exactly th...
Unintentionally Absent
I’ve been meaning to write something all week - somehow each time I sit down at the computer, something happens to either distract or divert me. Never mind. ...
Late nights new toys daughters and recovery
I was going to go to bed at a fairly normal time last night, but then fell down an internet rabbit hole of my own making. Before I knew it, it was 2am, and t...
Bridget Jones
We just got back from the cinema - after finally seeing the latest (and perhaps final?) Bridget Jones movie. I had heard mixed things about it - some friends...
More than this
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room, bathed in the light from the computer screen, surrounded by silence throughout the house. Everybody else is already...
Cautiously Optimistic
It’s late on Friday night, and I’m wondering if my body has started to turn a corner. After a week taking steroids and antibiotics, I took the last of them t...
Keep taking the tablets
On the way home from visiting my parents last night, after being sick for the better part of two weeks, my other half pretty much ordered to me to book a doc...
Reflection
Greetings from deepest, darkest Cornwall, where I’m visiting my parents for the weekend. After arriving late on Friday evening, we wandered into Looe on Satu...
Preparing to Travel
After a week and a half struggling with a cough and cold, I’m finally starting to feel better this morning - or at least if I sit quietly, I don’t cough my l...
The lost weekend
After signing myself off work sick last Wednesday, I returned to work on Thursday and Friday even though I was quite obviously getting worse. Even missing a ...
Not good at being sick
I’m not entirely sure where today has gone. One of the kids brought a pretty awful virus into the house, and it got me. I think this might be the first day I...
Friends, Cheese, Wine and Dogs
After several months chasing our own tails, we invited some friends over last night. There really wasn’t much of a plan - other than escaping from each other...
Celebratory coffee
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room at home, sipping a celebratory cup of coffee and listening to a largely forgettable “jazz café” playlist after climb...
Overthinking
A few thoughts have been rattling around my head recently. For the most part they keep out of the way, but then during the quiet moments they emerge, throw s...
Hello midnight, old friend
We went out for breakfast this morning at the café where my middle daughter works (or rather, one of the places she works - she now has two jobs). The owner ...
Into the City
At five fifty five this morning my body woke me up, and I switched off the alarm I had carefully set the previous night. I’m mysteriously good at doing that.
The Brutalist
We saw the movie “The Brutalist” at the cinema last night. I almost emptied my head into the keyboard when we got home, and I’m glad I didn’t - there was jus...
Artificial Intelligence
I just finished watching the movie “Her”. It’s only taken me 12 years and then two sittings to make it through the movie. Better late than never, right? I ca...
Existing
I went for a walk into town at lunchtime today, purely to escape the house for a little while - to escape the computer, the washing machine, the dishwasher, ...
Coming up for air
The clock is ticking towards midnight once more.
I am Groot
My eldest daughter sat in the junk room with me this evening - at my work desk - and helped me build a LEGO kit I got for Christmas - of “Groot” from Guardia...
Virtual Worlds
After wandering into the living room this evening I caught the second half of the wonderful movie “Free Guy” - where Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer and Joe Keery...
The Midnight Writing Club
Welcome to the inaugural meeting of the “Midnight Writing Club”. Unfortunately we only have one member at the moment, so I’ll be acting as chair-person, taki...
Oblivious Idiot
The clock will tick past 1am in 4 minutes. I’m sitting in bed, in the dark, tapping away on a laptop - running down the last bit of “awake” I have left. Afte...
Watching and Waiting
I’ve spent much of the day watching a long running process on a distant server farm slowly report onward progress. It’s been interesting - wanting to find be...
A grand day out
After scraping myself out of bed this morning, and standing rather conspicuously in the middle of the kitchen in my underwear sipping coffee - while waiting ...
A slightly less brave new world
After trying to convince myself that I wanted to live in my own castle for the last several weeks, and after sitting high atop my invented throne, admiring m...
Nosferatu
I just got home from a visit to the cinema with my eldest daughter - to watch “Nosferatu” - a new version of the story inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Alt...
Caverns Measureless to Man
Over the course of this weekend - for no other reason than to satisfy an unending curiosity, I have re-created a simulacrum of a computing platform I last sa...
The Melting Pot
While sitting atop my fence with a bag of popcorn, waiting for the Facebook, Instagram and Threads mud-slinging escapade to calm down, I’ve been trying to un...
Almost daily
For the last several years, whenever asked how frequently I write on the blog, I have replied “almost daily”. I’m beginning to wonder if I should refactor my...
Scammers
I received a message on my mobile phone yesterday - I didn’t take much notice at the time because I didn’t recognise the name. While catching up with email l...
New Years Day
Last night we were invited to bring in the new year with neighbours. We hadn’t planned on going anywhere or doing anything, but thought “you know what - why ...
2024
Brave new world
When the world wide web was shiny and new, causing content to appear within it’s rapidly expanding sprawl required a very specific set of skills. Intrepid au...
In limbo
I find myself in a curious limbo at the moment - anything I post will not be delivered to subscribers until the administrators that run the Ghost infrastruct...
To the pixel mines
You know the one where you post the right thing to the wrong blog, or the wrong thing to the right blog? I’ll pretend that sentence makes some sense to me (i...
I did it again
You know the one where you post the right thing to the wrong blog, or the wrong thing to the right blog? I’ll pretend that sentence makes some sense to me (i...
Christmas Shopping
Following best laid plans last night that I never dreamed would come to fruition based upon my eldest daughter’s seemingly deliberate failure to either under...
Not shaving
Oh the hopes I had, leading into a week off work. The things I was going to do. The universe obviously saw those hopes, raised a considerable boot in the air...
Oh the possibilities
When I switch off my work laptop in a few minutes, I won’t be switching it back on for a little over a week. Nine days. Two weekends, and the days in-between...
The best and the worst
I’m a little bit sad today. A little bit disappointed. It’s hard to describe why without breaking any confidences, but I’ll try.
Four gatherings in four days
Rather that spread the celebration of Christmas with friends and co-workers throughout a number of weeks, this year we have compressed it all into one never-...
Burning the last day
If you work for the same company for long enough, you eventually amass more holiday days than you can possibly use. Add to that a busy year - billable for mo...
Old friends and strange dreams
I had the strangest dream in quite some time last night. Or at least I think it was last night. I’m never quite sure when the dream happens - during the nigh...
Humming in the Kitchen
Friday night. Listening to Kate Bush, accompanied by a glass of wine, eating secret cookies that were hidden in the book-case. I forgot all about the cookies...
You know the one where
You know the one where you post the wrong content to the wrong platform, because it’s nearly 2am again, and you’re about to collapse into a stupor?
Its been a few days again
Let’s keep a long story very short. The new version of the pretend aeroplane game that I make pocket-money out of arrived a week ago (I like calling it a “pr...
You know the one where
You know the one where you post the wrong content to the wrong platform, because it’s nearly 2am again, and you’re about to collapse into a stupor?
Development Day
I’m back at work today after a week at home - a “staycation”. Of course I work from home, so I’m not really “back” - I’m still here - where I was, where I am...
Immaculate Constellation
When I was young I was fascinated with science fiction movies. It’s perhaps worth noting that I grew up before the internet - before video recorders even - s...
Colours of the Wind
Against all expectation, I’m starting to understand not continually running from one thing to the next. It’s interesting though - this “finding a balance” la...
It’s been a few days
When invited to describe my online journal, I often describe it as “almost daily”, but in reality for the last few months it’s been “once or twice a week” at...
The day after the night before
I woke up this morning to a number of messages and emails from distant friends - apologising for the news I hadn’t read yet.
Resurrecting the Pandemic Podcast
Four years ago - during one of the periods of isolation in the depths of the pandemic - I recorded a podcast talking to family, friends, writers, and blogger...
Depressing inevitability
The clock ticked past 10am a little over fifteen minutes ago. I’m sitting barefoot in the junk room in front of the computer, scrolling through blog posts, r...
Stealing an hour from the Sandman
The clock ticked past midnight nearly three quarters of an hour ago, and now races me towards sleep as I endeavour to complete one more thing - writing this ...
Invisibility
Given unanticipated “home alone” status this morning I took it upon myself to wander into town and get some fresh air. Perhaps grab some breakfast at the pub...
The chocolate cookie quotient
After days filled with adventure and exploration last weekend, the return to reality this week has been somewhat jarring. I’ve been head-down for much of the...
Do not disturb
While the rest of the imaginary world (everybody else, in my head) took part in all manner of exciting adventures and escapades over the last few days, I beg...
Electricity
Exciting times arrived in the hereabouts this morning when a workman smashed and bashed his way around the front of our house. The workman was installing an ...
A self destruction and an exodus
In the spirit of Wellybob the Backwards Cat, who starred in a single episode of a british 1970s children’s television show called “Jamie and the Magic Torch”...
Tomorrow, another lighthouse
Yesterday marked our first full day in Brixham, and a concerted effort to not run here, there and everywhere - to not chase our own tail.
Berry Head and Sharkham Point
Today’s adventure took us along the coast path from Brixham to Berry Head and Sharkham Point. We left mid-morning in no hurry at all, and slowly made our way...
First morning in Brixham
A few weeks ago – after learning when I would be using my remaining work holidays – my other half arranged her remaining holidays to coincide, and asked an o...
Another day, another cafe
I’m holed up in the corner of the café where my daughters work – surrounded by a coffee, half a sausage roll, a chromebook, and a rag-tag band of people from...
The Upside Down
This week marks the first of my staycations – a series of “use them or lose them” holidays resulting from a year where I carried on working while others esca...
Sunshine on a rainy day
After working solidly throughout the year, I have ended up with almost all of my holiday allocation untouched. This is not unusual, given my character, perso...
Bookshops and Jigsaw Pieces
We were supposed to go for breakfast in town this morning – just the two of us. A quiet breakfast together, and a wander around town while the new car charge...
Coffee Solves Everything
Another five days have passed since the last post. Five days in which I stopped the cross-posting escapade, put up sign posts notifying the change, and then ...
The remains of the day
How on earth have I written nothing in the blog for five days? You might think – given the cavernous period of “missing time” that I would have breathless ad...
The four horses of the blogging apocalypse
After experimenting with cross-posting to various platforms over the last few weeks, I thought it might not be amiss to scribble down a few thoughts about th...
The way the web once was
For the last several weeks I’ve been perpetuating perhaps the most ridiculous escapade in quite some time - cross-posting blog entries to Wordpress, Tumblr, ...
D for Dog
This afternoon I have escaped the confines of the junk room for a couple of hours to visit the café where my daughters work. A break from staring at code for...
Twenty three years
Today marks twenty three years since I stood at the front of a church in front of family and friends, exchanged rings, and signed a legally binding contract.
Friday morning in Starbucks
It’s Friday morning, and I find myself sitting at a table in the middle of Starbucks. It just occurred to me that today is Friday 13th. Isn’t it interesting ...
At the Café
I have escaped from the confines of the junk-room for a few hours. I’m holed up in the middle of the café my daughters work at for the morning - or at least ...
Relentless
To say the last few days, weeks, or months have been something of a grind would be something of an understatement. A relentless trudge between drama, argumen...
Socially challenged
Rather than trudge through the rain this lunchtime to a nearby store that sells marvellous sausage rolls, I warmed up leftovers from the fridge, and plan to ...
Midnight
The clock is ticking inexorably towards midnight.
What if it’s made out of cheese
Why is it the moment I sit down to write a blog post, my body decides it’s time to visit the bathroom? It’s almost like my body is better at procrastinating ...
Authenticity
Following the quite predictable implosion and subsequent exodus of users from the hellscape that Twitter became once Elon gave free reign to the toxic horde,...
Recursion
Every time a computer wakes up, it sees the world for the first time. In the first seconds of it’s resurrected life it learns “how to be what you expected it...
Endings and beginnings
While attempting to work this week there has been constant noise from next door - the sound of workmen crashing and banging around in the garden. I wondered ...
Like an exhale
Tuesday became Wednesday ten minutes ago - while brushing my teeth alongside my daughter in the downstairs bathroom. We have a weird synchronicity - we often...
What will your verse be
Tonight is all about having nothing to write, but writing anyway - in the vague hope that forcing words into the keyboard will somehow cause them to self-org...
On the inside, looking out
It’s Sunday evening, and you find me sitting in the dark of the junk room listening to a random chill-out Jazz playlist. It feels like Charlie Brown is going...
Proper Posh
While messaging back and forth with a good friend this morning I opined that I used to write in the blog almost every day – and that somewhere along the line...
I’m still here
Somehow a week has passed since I last wrote in the blog. I’m not sure how or why. I used to write almost every day – sharing thoughts, ideas and whatever el...
Finding Balance
I seem to have fallen off the writing bicycle just recently. I know I’ll get back on it eventually – I always do – I just need to find a bit better balance. ...
1am is an old friend
How is it that I don’t write anything for days, and then the urge to write something appears an hour after I should have already been asleep?
Hyper Japan
On Saturday morning we dragged the entire family out of the house, jumped on a train, and headed towards Olympia in London – one of the biggest exhibition ve...
Being Dudley Do Right
My other half spent all afternoon and evening sorting through bank statements and downloads of transactions to prepare my tax return for next year. Once upon...
Running on two hours sleep
Our youngest daughter arrived in the living room late last night doubled up in pain. We’ve been here before. After giving her ibuprofen and paracetamol she w...
Paying it forward
I received a message from a friend on the other side of the world last night – somebody I have known for years. I think our story started back when Tumblr fi...
Election Night
In the United Kingdom we exercised our right this evening to vote for who we wish to form a government to lead the country over the next several years. I’m p...
Falling off the internet
For the last several evenings a thought burrowed away at the back of my mind – that I hadn’t written anything in the blog recently, and that I didn’t really ...
The core memory music time-machine
The clock is racing towards midnight, and before long my week off will be no more.
Beaches, Castles and Journeys Home
The weather turned during our final full day in the holiday cottage on Anglesey. While my other half holed up in the lounge for the better part of the day, I...
Shipwrecks, Puffins and Chip Shops
It’s been a long day. My feet hurt. My legs hurt. Ominously, the achilles tendon that flared up while doing a charity run last year has flared up once again....
South Stacks Lighthouse
Today’s adventure took us to the South Stack Lighthouse, on the north-westerly tip of Holy Island, Anglesey. The lighthouse was built in 1809 by Trinity Hous...
Slowing down
It turns out slowing down is far more difficult than I imagined.
By god sir, I’ve lost my leg!
Today has been very much a day of two halves – first exploring the ruins of a medieval castle, and then poking around the preserved family seat of a proper l...
The Rhoscolyn Coast Path
I finally fell asleep a little after 1am last night – after lying in bed listening to noises in the roof-space of the ancient cottage we’re staying in. A fur...
Anglesey
After a somewhat epic journey across the country during the day, we arrived on the island of Anglesey late this afternoon. Along the way we battled through j...
One more day
Several months ago, after a particularly difficult few weeks at work and home, my other half asked if I might book a few days away somewhere - just the two o...
Not the bravest smartest of funniest
My other half started watching “Suits” recently - the legal drama that launched several actors towards stardom - most notably Megan Markle, I suppose.
A kind of magic
I’m running on empty. Again.
Tomorrow
I’m headed into the city tomorrow with work - the heart of the city.
George and Kaspar
These two idiots are George and Kaspar.
All work and no play
This evening you find me sitting in the dark of the living room on my own, finishing off a glass of wine. Our old cat George is sitting across from me, stari...
The fool on the hill
I’ve been sitting in the dark of the living room for the last ten minutes, looking straight through a cup of hot chocolate. The cursor blinks on the screen i...
Two days in London
This past weekend has been a first for me. A long time friend from the other side of the world - a huge Harry Potter fan and collector - made the trip to thi...
You never know
I often wonder if we are leaves floating along a river - travelling together for a time, finding our way, sometimes drifting apart, sometimes returning, some...
Writing code
I’m not really sure where the last few days have gone. Actually - that’s not entirely true.
History, people, dinner and music
I watched the boxing this evening - the fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury. Although I know very little about boxing, the result went the way I thou...
What will your verse be
Fifteen kilometres. I think that’s how far we walked today. A walk down to Talland, a pit-stop at the beach cafe, then along the coast-path to Polperro for l...
The journey home
After two days of glorious sunshine, the tables were turned this morning. The heavens didn’t so much open, as their entire contents fell on Cornwall.
Unexpectedly good trashy books on the beach
You know the one where you visit your parents for a long weekend with your youngest daughter, and then try to fit an entire weekend’s worth of activities int...
Sometimes predictable is good
It’s Friday morning, and you find us sitting on the train, whistling across the countryside towards the south-west of England. By “us”, I mean my youngest da...
Rebuilding Miss Nineteen
Note to self - grammar check blog posts before they go out into the world - then at least there might be a chance that entirely missing words will be picked ...
Filling the days with good
When our daughters were young, friends with grown children confidently remarked that while boys were hard work while young, girls would provide an entirely d...
Exhaling
After falling off the internet pretty spectacularly in recent weeks, I started looking at the likes of Threads, BlueSky, and the smouldering wreckage that Tw...
Where nobody knows your name
The clock is ticking towards 1am again. I’m not entirely sure how this keeps happening. I’m sitting in bed listening to a strangely relaxing ambient jazz caf...
Running and not dying (yet)
Well this is going well. I sat down to write something in the blog about going running after work today, and instead got sucked into watching some guitarist ...
Everything and everybody
It’s been a week. A week filled with hospital visits, very little sleep, and endless juggling at work. The good? Our youngest daughter is on the mend. Slowly...
Go straight to hospital - do not pass go
The night before last our youngest daughter started complaining that her back hurt. We didn’t think much about it at the time - she always has some ailment, ...
One thirty AM
You find me sitting in bed with a Chromebook propped in my lap, bathed in the light of a bedside lamp. Midnight came and went quite some time ago. All I can ...
Alexa knows me too well
It’s been a bit of a day. A bit of a week really. I’m at the start of a huge project at work, so wearing a succession of hats. Once the project starts rollin...
Catching up with the world and it’s dog
Today started so well. A lovely quiet morning clearing the decks before sitting down at my work computer to catch up on email. Oh. Why have they written to m...
Another Four Kilometres
I went for another run at lunchtime. I must be mad. After
A Very Quiet Weekend
After being invited out for dinner on Friday night, I found myself caught between a rock and a hard place. While I love spending time with friends, I haven’t...
Nearly Four Kilometres
I surprised myself this morning. After scraping myself out of bed I pulled on some running shorts and wandered downstairs. A few minutes later I was out in t...
Melancholy
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room, lit by the glow of a desk lamp. Taylor Swift is quietly filling the room with wistful songs while I tap away at the...
Bootstrapping
There is a term used in computer science called “bootstrapping” - describing the process by which a computer starts itself - essentially bringing itself to l...
The Roads Not Taken
After the properly scary events of yesterday – which curiously seem like several days ago now – my body seems to be rallying somewhat. The pain in my shoulde...
Falling Apart
On the last day of our holiday I could feel either the same bug I had before going away making a comeback - doing an encore of sorts - or an entirely new bug...
Final Day in Prague
You find me sitting in the bar of the Hotel U Prince on the edge of the old-town square in Prague, watching the hours tick down towards the arrival of our ca...
The National Museum and Chimney Cake
After taking quite some time to scrape ourselves out of bed this morning (or rather, after it took my other half quite some time to scrape herself out of bed...
A Walk to Prague Castle
Yesterday morning we were up and out early for a walk to Prague Castle. Given we are staying in the old town, this meant picking out way through the city str...
Welcome to Prague
You know how you have all the good intentions to do something for day after day, but the moment never seems to present itself? That explains how you don’t kn...
Taylor and Tori
It’s been a week since the last post. How does that even happen? I remember years ago when I would write almost every day. How did I find time? Perhaps I did...
Sunday
It’s already Monday morning. I’m playing the age old game of avoiding tomorrow by making today last longer. It’s been a bit of a weekend.
Tired
How has an entire week passed since I last wrote anything in the blog?
Bletchley Park
After surviving another lap around the local star aboard our collective ball of mud, my other half asked what I might like to do this weekend. I pulled “Blet...
Experiences and Growth
Today’s writing prompt at Wordpress asks “what experiences in life helped you grow the most?”. Good question - and one I might answer differently on any give...
It’s late again
How on earth is it the 1st of March already? Also, it’s been almost a week since the last post on the blog. Again. What is happening? I can’t remember postin...
The Biggest Challenge
Today’s writing prompt asks “what is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months”. Here’s where I step back, take a breath, think through if I...
Friday Morning
How has it been a week since I last wrote anything in the blog? I’ve been meaning to write something every day - but one thing or another has got in the way ...
Friday
Ever since I can remember, my middle daughter has had her heart set on joining the police. Throughout school she read endless books, and watched innumerable ...
Bluesky
About seven years ago one of the first federated social networks appeared on the internet. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, “federated” just means “not a ...
Saturday Night
I canceled my Amazon music subscription this evening, and re-signed with Spotify. While pulling pizza from the oven at dinner time I explained to our middle ...
Exploiting the machinary of the social networks
There’s something I’ve noticed on the various social networks recently – I imagine some of you might have noticed it too – a crafty trick to do with the algo...
Computers and the Internet
Today’s writing prompt asks what the most important invention in your lifetime is. While it’s an easy question to answer – the internet – it only really make...
Perfect Day
Today’s writing prompt asks us to describe an ideal day, from beginning to end.
What If
How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?
Here, There and Everywhere
I logged into Wordpress at lunchtime, expecting a writing prompt to appear - only it didn’t, because it’s not January any more. That didn’t stop a piece of t...
Annoyances
Yesterday’s writing prompt (because I missed a day again, and it’s much easier than today’s writing prompt) asks “what do you complain about the most?”
Winning the Lottery
Today’s (or rather yesterday’s) writing prompt asks what we would do if we won the lottery. I say “or rather yesterday’s” because it’s already gone midnight,...
Books
Today’s writing prompt asks “what books do you want to read?”. I’m trying not to grin while writing this - and wondering if I can just write “all of them”.
Five Things for Fun
Yesterday’s writing prompt asked what five things we do for fun. I say “yesterday’s writing prompt” because life kind of landed on me like a bag of spanners ...
The Internet Detective Agency
I got followed by somebody on Tumblr the other day - who then private messaged me and struck up conversation. After a few messages back and forth - “love you...
Living the Dream
Today’s Bloganuary writing prompt asks what our dream job might be. I can certainly tell you what my dream job was when I was young.
Uninvention
Today’s writing prompt asks “if you could un-invent something, what would it be?”.
Decluttering
I’ve given up trying to take part in “Bloganuary” every day. Life happens. Mayhem happens. What was it Obama said to the woke keyboard crusaders? Life is com...
Memories of California
Life conspired somewhat yesterday - causing me to miss a day of the Bloganuary writing prompts. I’ve just carved out half-an-hour amid the usual weekend mayh...
Communication
Today’s writing prompt asks “in what ways do you communicate online?”. The quick answer would almost certainly be “not as much as I used to”. The real answer...
All the peanuts
Today’s prompt asks “what snack would you eat right now?” - which I think might just set the low bar so far in terms of the writing prompts fed from Wordpres...
A Child of the Star Wars Generation
Today’s Bloganuary prompt asks us to “describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth”, and “what became of it?”.
Pretend Aeroplanes and OnlyFans
Today’s Bloganuary writing prompt challenges those taking part to “come up with a crazy business idea”.
The Mission
Today’s Bloganuary writing prompt asks “what is your mission?”. Sometimes it feels like my mission is no more than making it through the day unscathed. There...
Who wants to live forever
Today’s Bloganuary prompt asks “What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?”. Quite apart from objecting to the wording of the question...
What could you do differently
Today’s Bloganuary prompt asks “What could you do differently?”. Oh my word. This question must be out of the top-drawer of cold reading questions. A grand f...
Freeway Billboards
Today’s Bloganuary prompt asks “If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?”.
The Future or the Past
Today’s Bloganuary writing prompt asks “do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?”.
The Greatest Gift
Today’s “Bloganuary” writing prompt asks “what is the greatest gift anybody could give you”.
Playtime
Today’s writing prompt for the annual “Bloganuary” blogging escapade is “Do you play in your daily life? What says ‘playtime’ to you?”.
A challenge for the year ahead
During January I’ve decided to take part in the annual “bloganuary” escapade at Wordpress - where you’re encouraged to write something inspired by the writin...
2023
Taylors Version
A month after buying the record player, I finally got to a record store today. While my other half and youngest daughter perused clothing and book stores, I ...
Reflections
Tomorrow is almost New Year’s Eve. Almost the end of another year. I feel like I should write something about this year, but the words really aren’t there. T...
The day after Boxing Day
We’re heading out of the door in an hour to the yearly “Christmas surprise”, organised by my other half - only it’s not so much of a surprise any more after ...
Christmas Eve
The clock is ticking towards 11pm on Christmas Eve. It feels weird this year. Christmas is changing. I guess all families go through this - as your children ...
I bet Darth Vader doesnt do chores
That’s it. No more work until the new year. A few days to relax into the holidays now - to slow down (har har). There is a chore mountain ahead of us - and o...
The motherlode
Unlike many people I worked straight through the pandemic. I wasn’t furloughed, but I did reduce to a shorter working week for a while - keeping myself busy ...
Not knowing
Tonight you find me sitting in the darkness of the bedroom, emptying my head into the keyboard on my lap while my other half watches “Van der Valk” in the lo...
Trying to do too much
I finally fell into bed at 2am last night - and then watched a TV show on my laptop until nearly 3am. Perhaps this “trying to fit too much into each day” lar...
Change change change
If you receive my blog via the wonders of email, you’ll have no idea of the seismic changes that have taken place in recent hours.
Exiting the Holland Tunnel
The clock ticked past midnight half an hour ago.
The internet got ruined by the arrival of everybody
The clock ticked past midnight half an hour ago. I’m not so much playing the “stay up late to avoid the arrival of tomorrow” game, as much as “trying to fit ...
I know how to live
It’s Saturday evening, and you find me sitting in the dark of the study (read: junk room) at home in front of a blinking cursor. I just remembered we had som...
Crossing the Streams
In a moment of madness this evening I crossed the blogging streams in a manner that Peter Venkman would have been proud. My personal blog has re-surfaced on ...
Crossing the Streams
In a moment of madness this evening I crossed the blogging streams in a manner that Peter Venkman would have been proud. My personal blog has re-surfaced on ...
The Christmas Party and a Sea of Santas
It’s been a few days again, hasn’t it. I’m not entirely sure where to start.
Too Much Work and Not Enough Play
Here we are again.
The One Where I Started Running Again
After completing the somewhat idiotic running challenge in September, given that my body was falling to bits on me in pretty short order (the last run of the...
Forgettable Nonsense
It’s been five days since I last wrote in the blog. I have nothing to report. I sometimes wonder why I still write. Writers are supposed to be enamoured with...
Heres to the Crazy Ones
A collection of incendiary thoughts have been ticking away at the back of my mind like an unexploded bomb for the last few weeks. Rather than let them sit th...
Going nowhere fast
I’m not entirely sure where the weekend has gone. I had plans to touch base with friends, to go for a run, to buy some music - to do so many things. I did no...
Back to the routine
We returned home from the Lake District on Wednesday. Six hours, a stop for a cup of tea, and nervously watching the fuel tick down for the last hundred mile...
A morning in the hills
While the sun fought to break through the clouds this morning we pulled our walking clothes on, threw the boots and coats in the back of the car, and set off...
Unexpected Sunshine
We left Braithwaite in unexpected sunshine this morning, and set off on the gentle climb along Stile End and Outerside, towards the disused mine at Coledale.
Wednesday
The last few days have been ever-so-slightly stressful - or rather, our youngest daughter has been learning the hard way about just how manipulative, nasty, ...
Why are people so terrible
We went to our wonderful new local cinema this evening to watch Beetlejuice (they show a throw-back movie each week). While watching the movie, I couldn’t he...
Bang Bang Cauliflower
We went out for a drink and something to eat with friends last night. Not really “out out” - just ten-pin-bowling, and Wagamama (a noodle bar, if they don’t ...
Making it up as we go along
Isn’t it funny how you look forward to the weekend, and yet when it arrives you can see it, you know it’s there, but somehow it remains just out of reach. Be...
Dreams Dogs and Operations
The rain began falling before I woke this morning, and continued throughout the day. A steady stream of water from a dark grey sky, turning puddles into lake...
Trains Glasses and Blogging
After going to bed at midnight last night, I woke at 3am, then 4am this morning, and turned thoughts over in my head until the alarm went off at 5am. An hour...
A Walk to the Beach
A few minutes after my mobile woke me this morning there was a knock on the bedroom door, and my Dad shouted “time to get up”. I squinted at the clock, and w...
South West
A few minutes after finding a seat on a train at the local railway station this morning a lady walked through the train checking tickets. She took my ticket ...
Tickets Booked
A couple of months ago I was talking to my other half about how we might use the mountain of holiday I had accrued at work, and she suggested I visit my pare...
Sausage Rolls and Cappuccino
Friday morning finds me sitting in the middle of a busy cafe - the one my middle daughter works at. She’s not here today - I finally got around to visiting o...
Stop the World
The clock is ticking relentlessly towards midnight, and you find me sitting in the dark of the junk room once more, bathed in the light of several desk lamps...
The In-Between
How on earth has October arrived already? Everything about the world feels strange at the moment - disconnected - broken - stumbling in a haphazard manner fr...
100 Kilometres
I did it!! After a month of running almost every morning (even while on holiday), and then navigating a household wading through the latest covid spike, I ma...
Covid Running and Music
It’s been a few days since I last wrote in the blog. I’m not sure I really have much to share, but I’ll start writing and see what happens. How does the old ...
Tenerife
Early in the hours of last Saturday morning we loaded bags into a waiting car and were transported to the airport. After spending several hours crammed in a ...
Untitled
Which topics would you like to be more informed about?
Non Player Characters
I’m starting to think a long-standing joke among my family may have some truth to it. The route into town on foot crosses several road junctions - and while ...
Sunshine on a Rainy Day
A message from an old friend appeared in my phone this morning. I was walking to the corner shop to buy bread when it arrived - the gentle vibration causing ...
Against my better judgement
I’m giving Wordpress another chance. I immediately noticed while catching up on recent posts in the “Reader” interface that the “like” button worked perhaps ...
Fifty Kilometres
I finally made it to fifty kilometres this morning in my month-long journey towards running one hundred kilometres to raise funds for Great Ormond Street Hos...
Forty Kilometres
I made it to forty kilometres this morning. It hasn’t been without cost - my body is slowly falling to pieces around me. With no recovery days in-between, ea...
New Beginnings
I ran again this morning. The sixth “5K” in a row. Thirty kilometres down. Seventy to go. This morning was pretty tough. Every morning seems to be tough at t...
Twenty Kilometres
After scraping myself out of bed at 7am this morning, I made it through another five kilometres before starting the working day. I’ve run twenty kilometres i...
Holding on to the good
I start the ridiculous charity running escapade on Friday. I’m hoping to run 5km every day for a few days to “get ahead” - knowing that we will be flying out...
A Fragment of a Dream
A few days ago it occurred to me that I hadn’t been sick for quite some time. Of course I was tempting fate. I woke up yesterday with a completely blocked no...
A Wedding to Remember
We travelled across the country on Friday morning, booked into a hotel, and joined some friends for their wedding a little later in the day.
Raising Money for Great Ormond Street childrens hospital throughout September
Since doing the “Couch to 5K” in recent months, various charities have reached out to see if I might join them in their various fund-raising efforts. I final...
Retro
It’s funny how one thing leads to another. I wrote a few days ago about the discovery of an “emulator” that turns your computer into it’s great, great grandf...
Five Minutes to Midnight
No, this post isn’t about the domesday clock or the impending end of the world. The clock is quite literally ticking towards midnight. When I wrote the title...
Sliding Doors
I’ve had a thought tumbling around my head for the last few days. I’m not quite sure how to put it into words. Perhaps if I just start writing, the words mig...
What tomorrow may bring
The clock ticked past midnight a few minutes ago. Everybody else has gone to bed. I’m sitting here in the dark, turning thoughts over in my head.
After Midnight
The clock ticked past midnight a few minutes ago. Everybody else has gone to bed. I’m sitting here in the dark, turning thoughts over in my head.
Is Wordpress Broken
I’m contemplating ditching Wordpress. A fundamental given of any web platform is that anything a visitor can interact with should perform the expected action.
Here we are again
I’m not entirely sure what Wordpress are up to, but they have badly broken the session programming behind their wonderfully dysfunctional platform once again...
Chocolate always helps
After noodling around with the internet for much of the morning, I looked out at the sky, saw that it was cloudy, and thought “if not now, when?”. I have a f...
The world and its dog
The clock ticked past midnight half an hour ago. I’m not entirely sure where Saturday went. After going out for breakfast this morning, I returned home, half...
Tuesday
For some reason I woke up at 6am this morning. I’m not entirely sure how or why. I then fell asleep until the Amazon Echo filled the bedroom with commercial ...
A Day in the Life
For some reason I woke up at 6am this morning. I’m not entirely sure how or why. I then fell asleep until the Amazon Echo filled the bedroom with commercial ...
Somewhere in the middle
It’s been a pretty quiet day. While the rain fell outside my other half holed up in the lounge doing a jigsaw, and I noodled around with this and that on the...
Unexpected Friendships
Some time ago I wrote about the curious paradox of feeling loneliness when surrounded by others. I wonder if it’s to do with fitting in - or rather, not fitt...
Unexpected Friendships
Some time ago I wrote about the curious paradox of feeling loneliness when surrounded by others. I wonder if it’s to do with fitting in - or rather, not fitt...
Something of a Spectacle
I walked to the optician yesterday lunchtime and picked up my glasses. I thought it might be interesting to record my initial experiences before I forget wha...
Smiles Not Tears
One day after another. Rinse and repeat.
Strange Dreams and Jam Doughnuts
I had the strangest dream last night. I only remember the last few moments. I was at some kind of conference with work, and had made friends with a couple of...
Magic the Gathering
I sat down with my daughters after clearing up the dinner things and set about learning to play “Magic the Gathering” with them. If you’ve never heard of it,...
Cafe Society
After working on programming all morning, I’ve upped sticks and moved to a nearby cafe for the afternoon. Rather than amuse myself in the junk room at home, ...
Youre going to need glasses
I walked into town yesterday at lunchtime and visited the opticians for an eye test. It’s been about five years since I last had my eyes tested, and I had sl...
Indiana
We went to the cinema last night and watched the latest and final Indiana Jones movie. I don’t quite understand why the critics have given it such a mauling ...
Midnight
I’m sitting in the dark of the living room on my own, with the clock ticking towards midnight. My other half is on her way back from a music concert - she we...
Threads
Meta - the owners of Facebook - released “Threads” this morning - a mobile app very similar to Twitter, but perhaps crucially not run by a self-destructive n...
Five Kilometres
I ran at lunchtime today. “Officially” I’m on week 7 of “Couch to 5K”. Unofficially, I thought “f*ck it”, and ran 5K. I went slowly. It hasn’t escaped me tha...
Can you come and pick me up
After spending the last several months either holed up in the study at home, or occasionally venturing to a nearby cafe, I boarded a train this morning and h...
Peace and Quiet
It’s early on Saturday afternoon, and the house is curiously quiet. Everybody else left a few minutes ago - heading out to watch England Ladies play against ...
Tears in the dark
I was going to do so many things this evening. So many things.
Running Movies and Marilyn
Another day. Another run. The only window I had to go running today was at lunchtime, which also coincided with the sun coming out. Perhaps the universe is t...
Parties Friends and Pianos
The clock just ticked past 10am. I’ve been up for a couple of hours. I’m still the only one up. Pottering around the house - tidying up, putting things away,...
Tiredness Abounds
You find me sitting in the dark of the bedroom on my own again - with the Chromebook balanced on my lap, the windows wide open, and the sound of traffic in t...
The Birds Know
I just got back from giving a friend’s dog his dinner, and taking him for a walk around the green outside our houses. He rewarded me by doing the biggest dum...
Constellations
Many years ago, when I started writing a blog on the internet, the “blogosphere” was filled with larger than life characters, breathless stories, and exubera...
Powered by Idiocy
I was supposed to go running the day before yesterday, but the weather had other ideas - turning the heat up to 11. We (the British) are famously a bit rubbi...
A Night Off
After running every other day for the last several weeks, and working out last night too (I’m still sore now), I’m having a night off tonight. I suppose it s...
Conversations with the Sandman
Monday became Tuesday nearly an hour ago. I’m still counting it as Monday, while I sit in bed with the laptop perched on my lap. It’s hotter than hell up her...
Little by Little
I woke up at 5am this morning. I fell out of a dream where I was worrying about running a software development course at a far flung location - but for some ...
Running and Escaping
I finally went for a run after work yesterday evening. My daughter - full of optimism and enthusiasm in the morning - returned from school claiming hayfever,...
Saying Without Saying
My personal blog has been using the same “theme” for the past several years. A minimalist stream of posts with no distractions, gadgets, widgets, or whatever...
Something for me
I worked from a nearby cafe this morning with a colleague. It’s funny really - so many people seem to aspire to work from cafes or coffee shops, but really i...
Running Fires and Friendships
The first time I woke up this morning I quite confidently looked across at the bedside clock, knowing that I had overslept, and that there would be no way I ...
While making other plans
While sitting in the dark of the junk room decompressing, John Lennon’s words come to mind - “life is what happens while you’re making other plans”. Somehow ...
Keep on Running
I overslept this morning. I had planned to get up at 7am and get a run in before work. Instead I snuck out at lunchtime and got it done. The funny thing? It’...
Unfit for Purpose
I went for a run yesterday - for the first time in six months. This will be the umpteenth time I have set out on the “Couch to 5K” programme - to get myself ...
Yesterday Didnt Happen
Yesterday didn’t happen. A few drinks with good friends the night before somehow turned into a take-away meal, many more drinks, and the sharing of stories u...
The dilemma of knowing
We went out today.
Weekend Stories
Here we go again.
Casting a Beautiful Net
Many moons ago I watched a television series called “The OA”. Without ruining it any more than I might (it’s a wonderful series, and you should definitely bi...
The serendipity of it all
After setting aside lunchtime to write a blog post, I’ve spent the last half an hour doing anything and everything except write a blog post. This is pretty t...
After Midnight
Returning to Wordpress and resurrecting my old domain name feels like pulling on a set of comfortable old clothes. It’s very strange.
If you cant beat them
After a year wandering through the internet wilderness, I’ve returned to Wordpress, paid for an account, sat down heavily in the corner, and let out a huge s...
The one where Tumblr deactivated my account
For the last year or so I’ve been following the idea that it’s better to take your writing to potential readers, rather than try to bring them to your writin...
Choose Your Own Adventure
Itas 1:30am and Iave been the last person awake in the house for over an hour. Iam turning something over and over in my head. Not something I can share. Jus...
Struggle Escape and Marilyn
Somehow the entire evening has vanished from beneath me. I’m not quite sure how that happens.
Choose your own Adventure
It’s 1:30am and I’ve been the last person awake in the house for over an hour. I’m turning something over and over in my head. Not something I can share. Jus...
Making Memories and Averting Disasters
We went to Wembley Stadium this weekend to watch the Womenas FA Cup Final - between Chelsea and Manchester United. Thankfully our youngest daughteras team wo...
The Early Hours
The clock ticked past midnight over an hour ago. I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room on my own - the rest of the house fell into silence some time ago a...
Waiting
I can’t tell you where I am this morning. Let’s just say “a waiting room”. Waiting for my eldest daughter. I’ve written off work for the morning to sit here,...
Walled Gardens and Bullet Journals
A message from a friend struck home today - encouraging me to stop trying so damn hard. To stop trying to spin so many plates all the time. To stop trying to...
A History of Mediocrity
While sorting through old photo albums at the weekend, a big red album titled “This is Your Life” was re-discovered. My other half compiled it for my 30th bi...
Nights Out and Coronations
It’s early on Sunday evening, and I just sat down in the junk room with a glass of wine. Somehow several days have passed since the last post - not sure how....
Taking a sanity break
I planned to write a blog post yesterday. I don’t know why I plan anything any more - suffice to say, the blog post didn’t happen.
A bookshop a café and an unexpected night out with friends
I took the day off yesterday, and invested some time in our eldest daughter - who hasn’t had the best time in recent weeks and months. We wandered into town ...
Burning the Candle
We’re heading towards the final half-hour of the working day, and I’m not entirely sure how I’m staying awake. After going “out out” last night - on a work n...
the wit of the staircase
I’m not doing so well at the “almost daily” part of this blogging lark any more. “Every few days” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as “almost daily”. F...
friday night
Its Friday night - or rather, Saturday morning now - and you find me perched in bed with a fire tablet propped on my legs. My feet are not gripping the bed s...
before the robot overlords arrive
Apparently the army of corporate professionals (read: marketers) that use LinkedIn as their personal playground to spam each other with advertorial and inspi...
writing smiles and bravery
Writing
the day after the night before
Itas always interesting - the day after a party - piecing together the memories of the night before. The laughter, the stories, the friends, the music, and t...
a bit of dolly
Our youngest daughter turned 18 today. How did that happen? How did the little girl who couldn’t walk so well and couldn’t talk so well get to be a grown up?...
coffee oclock
While busy minding my own business yesterday evening, an email arrived in my in-box notifying me that “Substack Notes” had been unleashed on the world. I had...
strange dreams
I had a dream last night that has been rattling around my head all day. When I woke, it took a few moments to gather my thoughts - to re-construct the real f...
who knows
I used to write almost every day. Iam not quite sure what happened. Perhaps life happened. Itas a funny thing a life a isnat it. John Lennon is famously supp...
The Coffee Shop Intervention Requirement
Several days have slipped past since I wrote anything of consequence. Once again I find myself sitting in the dark of the junk room, propped in front of the ...
it never ends
After a long and somewhat idiotic search over the last several years, I appear to have found a half-decent text editor for writing purposes that doesn’t anno...
Explaining my Recent Absence
The clock is ticking towards midnight once more. You find me sitting in the dark of the junk room once more. Perhaps I should stop calling it the ajunk rooma...
Half Past My Bedtime
Somehow itas almost 1am on Friday night (or should that be Saturday morning?). Where does the time go? Iam struggling to cast my mind back over the last few ...
awkward
I just wrote a somewhat awkward agoodbyea message over at Substack, where I had been experimenting with writing personal blog posts for the last several mont...
the long journey home
Itas Monday afternoon and you find me on the train a sitting at Plymouth station, in the south west of England. Weall be leaving in a few minutes a heading t...
sunday in cornwall
If youave not been reading in recent days, Iam in the south-west of England at the moment a visiting my parents for a long weekend.
the journey to the south west
It’s been a bit of a day.
Life and Death
We watched the movie “Living” last night - the one that Bill Nighy was nominated at the Oscars for. Of course I say “we” - within half an hour the audience h...
Busy Plans
While sitting at the dinner table this evening our youngest daughter came up with best excuse I’ve ever heard for why she couldn’t help her sisters with some...
Raining on Saturday Morning
Rain has been falling all morning. A steady stream of relentless rain. The kind of rain that slowly washes everything away without anybody noticing.
Wishes Hopes and Dreams
Somehow we ‘re all in bed several hours earlier than usual. Everybody else is sound asleep. I ‘m sitting in bed, laptop propped on my lap, tapping quietly aw...
Blackbird
The clock just ticked past 9am on Sunday morning, and I ‘m sitting in the “study” (junk room) admiring my own handiwork. There have always been two desks in...
Poetry on a rainy day
We very nearly had some snow yesterday afternoon. A few flakes fell from the sky, and immediately polarised everybody that noticed - filling them with glee o...
Half Past My Bedtime
Just a few words, given that I haven’t posted since returning from Amsterdam.
Home again
We got home late last night. The train journey home seemed to go on forever, and then the car we had booked to meet us at the station got stuck in traffic. S...
Out Out
For our final night in Amsterdam we headed first for a meal at small restaurant on the banks of the Amstel river, and then on towards the Rembrandt area, whe...
The Koninklijk Paleis
After yesterday’s epic treck around Amsterdam, we slowed down a little, and only booked one destination for the day - the Koninklijk Paleis - the Royal Palac...
Anne Franks Diary
After scraping ourselves out of bed this morning we wandered down to the hotel bar, which had been transformed into a cosmopolitan cafe filled with coffee, c...
First Day in Amsterdam
A car quietly arrived outside our house at 5:30am this morning. We quietly gathered our bags and tip-toed out to meet the driver - worrying over everything t...
A few days away
In a few days time, I will celebrate the completion of fifty laps of the sun. In order to celebrate the continued successful landing of one foot in front of ...
Carrots and Peas
Isn’t it funny how we look forward to the arrival of the weekend, but then spend most of the weekend watching it vanish before our eyes? The clock just ticke...
And exhale
You know the vague blog post I wrote late last night about magicians pulling rhinocerouses from hats? Not happening. Apparently the universe was playing a bi...
Unexpected Idiocy
Today was interesting, in the way that a magician pulling a rhinoceros from a hat instead of a rabbit might be interesting - not least if the magician had be...
One day at a time
At the moment life seems to primarily cosist of a concerted effort to reach tomorrow. I’m sure that’s a colossal generalisation, and will no doubt attract co...
Oversleeping
I overslept this morning - if you can count dragging yourself out of bed at 9:30am on a Sunday morning oversleeping. I also had the strangest dream I’ve had ...
Never Say Never
Towards the end of last year I retreated somewhat from the wider social internet - untangling myself from the likes of Twitter, Tumblr, Wordpress, and Instag...
A Day Off
I’m almost giddy with excitement. I have the day off work. I never take days off. We’ll ignore that it’s already 11am, that I got up three hours ago, and all...
Its that day again
I snuck out to the shops yesterday afternoon and bought a card and some posh chocolates - as convention dictates - such that my other half might have somethi...
Hello midnight old friend
So here we are again. Half an hour ago Sunday became Monday. I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room with the remains of a cup of coffee, with the sound of ...
Memories of Madonna
The clock is ticking towards midnight, and you find me sitting on the sofa in the lounge, listening and half-watching music videos on the television. Madonna...
How is it Friday already
Where has this week gone? I’m pretty sure the last time I looked it was still Monday afternoon - and now somehow Friday has lurched into view. Of course righ...
Escapology
The clock is ticking relentlessly towards 1am. I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room, writing something rather than nothing after missing several days in ...
Half past midnight
The weekend has almost gone. The clock ticked past midnight some time ago. The clothes dryer is still running in the kitchen. The dishwasher finished a few m...
Walking at Midnight
Walking into town to meet my daughter after her shift finishes at the pub has become an unexpectedly wonderful part of the day. There’s something about empty...
Relentless
This week has been utterly relentless so far. No one thing has stood out - each day has just felt like an endless train of one thing after another. It doesn’...
It begins with hello
I need to stop burning the candle at both ends. I think perhaps the key might be learning to say “no” more often. I find it really difficult though - saying ...
When the walls fall
It’s been a strange sort of day. After an hour clearing the chaos caused by the rest of the family making breakfast, lunches and hot drinks, I settled into a...
Five Minutes to Midnight
The Universe seems to be playing games with me at the moment. You know those (completely unrealistic) ideas I had about making time to write early in the mor...
A Slippery Slope
I have just installed the free trial of Scrivener. I’m using it to write this. I don’t know how long I’m allowed to use it for before I have to pay for it. L...
Lifes too short
For the last several days I’ve been turning the idea over and over in my head about buying a copy of Scrivener. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a word proc...
Forgetting to Live
I’m watching the clock. Watching and waiting. Waiting for my phone to vibrate, and my daughter’s voice to ask when I’m picking her up. She works in a pub in ...
Marmalade on Toast
I didn’t used to eat breakfast. Back when I cycled to work I would scrape myself out of bed each morning, have a shower, wrap up warm, down a hastily made co...
You should write a novel
I went out for a walk in the woods with a good friend at the weekend - a much needed escape from “normal” for an hour - accompanying her dog as he wandered t...
A Walk in the Woods
After clearing the washing up, filling the washing machine for the second time, and preparing to walk into town to buy groceries this morning, my phone vibra...
Midnight
While lying low for the last few days, fighting off a virus that seems to have been rampaging around anybody and everybody, I’ve come to appreciate those tha...
Out of the loop
I signed myself off work yesterday, and “stayed at home” today. It feels ridiculous to write the words “stayed at home”, because I work from home.
Another Day
It’s been a day. Another day. There have been too many recently. I signed myself off work at lunchtime, but within an hour had been thrown head-long into a r...
Words After Midnight
While walking through reflections in puddles, and through ink filled streets late this evening to escort my middle daughter home from work, the machinery of ...
Burning Up
After deteriorating through much of the day before, I called in sick yesterday - the first time I have called in sick in about eighteen months.
Hassled
Today was challenging - for all sorts of reasons. Hopefully you’ll understand why I cannot and will never share any frustrations related to my work. Let’s ju...
Naked Dreams
I had quite the strangest dream in quite some time last night, and told my other half about it shortly after waking up. If not for telling her, it would no d...
Lost and Found
I am perhaps the most rational, pragmatic, sensible person I know. I am also eccentric, whistful, romantic, and quite the explorer of rabbit holes and daydre...
An Eventful Day
I’m not quite sure that I know where to start. While the rest of the family have been dropping like flies - suffering from various colds, flu, or possibly CO...
Far from the madding crowd
It’s been a strange sort of day. While the rest of the world went about their very important business I knocked around at home. Yes, I was working - but I wa...
One Foot in Front of the Other
A few moments after 7am this morning the cogs of the internet firmament clunked forwards and filled the bedroom with the sounds of a local commercial radio s...
New Years Day
It’s mid afternoon on New Year’s Day, and I’m piecing together the events of the night before in my head - smiling as each moment comes into focus - each fri...
2022
New Years Eve
I woke in the early hours of the morning with a cramp in my right calf, leapt out of bed and hopped around the bedroom like a demented one-legged race partic...
Music Movies and Books
I’m sitting in the quiet of the junk room at home, listening to “On Green Dolphin Street” by Miles Davis. I’m going to blame a good friend on the internet th...
The small everyday deeds of ordinary folk
It is done. I have just paid for this blog to be hosted by Ghost for the next year. I guess the goal now is figuring out how to engage readers without sellin...
The day after Christmas
Yesterday began at 8am in our household - with everybody taking turns through the shower, brushing their teeth, and pulling on variously smart clothes for th...
Discovering a Wonderful Writer
It’s the last working day before Christmas. Half an hour left, with a long weekend stretched out ahead. While not working I’ve been grocery shopping, put two...
Keeping my mouth shut
Somehow we’re halfway through the week before Christmas. Only a few days left. I could swear I lost a day this week already. Being honest, I could probably s...
The week before Christmas
I’m just taking a break from work, sipping a coffee, and listening to some music on Spotify. A friend mentioned Eva Cassidy earlier, and she’s been rattling ...
The system that never existed
Have you ever invented something without inventing it? Have you ever designed a hugely complex solution to something, without designing a huge complicated so...
The end of Twitter
You might think a social network acquired by an egomaniac billionaire that has become unsustainable after advertisers collectively ditched it would be playin...
Sideways
In the normal scheme of things, if you place one foot in front of the other and keep doing it you tend to move forwards. The normal scheme of things doesn’t ...
Brave New World
It turns out I can sit on my hands for roughly 48 hours. That’s how long it took the thought of building a better blogging castle to ferment, and grow into a...
Sitting on my hands
Over the last few years I’ve walked away from one blogging platform after another - leaving Wordpress, Medium, Tumblr, and Blogger along the way.
The Strangest Experience of my Life
On Wednesday I travelled to a restaurant for the work Christmas meal. A relaxed lunch with co-workers I rarely see. It was quite the experience.
A Quiet Dream
I had one long, continuous dream last night. When I woke this morning I played through it in my head - recounting the various twists and turns of the story m...
The Internet Sausage Machine
I cancelled my subscription to the Medium partner programme a few days ago. I suppose it says something about the power of suggestion, and my own suggestabil...
The Imaginary Astronaut Escapade
I threw some photos of myself at an “artificially intelligent” application earlier today, and it resulted in the most surreal few minutes of my life - as I w...
The Christmas Market
The annual “Christmas Market” arrived in town this evening. The main route through town was closed off to all traffic, and the road filled with stalls servin...
Coffee OClock
It’s been a day - and that’s all I want to say about that. The washing machine has done several loads, the kitchen has been turned into a laundromat, and wor...
Treat Yo Self
For the last several years I have been soldiering on with a little Amazon “Fire Tablet”. It’s been my go-to device for reading in bed and watching movies and...
The most beautiful sound I ever heard
After battling my way to the end of an unexpectedly lengthy day at work, my other half wandered into the dark of the junk room and suggested “shall we go out...
Slow Sundays Rule
After a slow start this morning, I wandered into town with my eldest daughter. After quite some deliberation, we ended up at Starbucks. Armed with a cappucci...
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
We were invited by friends to a charity fund-raiser quiz-night at the local football club last night. We met them under a street lamp at the end of the road,...
One blog to rule them all
After drinking the kool-aid, and spending several weeks trying to convince myself that running my own blogging castle on my own blogging island was a great i...
The Slippery Slope
I have become my own worst enemy, but at least I ‘ve caught myself while sliding into the abyss. I should probably explain.
Theres always something
Over the next few days I’m going to find myself in a curious state of limbo with work - as one project comes to an end, and the next ramps up. Only it won’t ...
Rubbish at Drinking
That s it. I ve had it with drinking. Or at least, I ve had it with alcohol - until I forget how rubbish I ve become at dealing with it. While watching t...
Monday
I almost overslept this morning. I m going to blame the strangest dream I ve had in quite some time. None of it made any sense, but it stuck in my head all...
Mastodon Emerges
Watching the slow exodus of users bleed away from Twitter over the last several days has been interesting. Who would have thought that an eccentric billionai...
Monday
I almost overslept this morning. I m going to blame the strangest dream I ve had in quite some time. None of it made any sense, but it stuck in my head all...
Adventures with Hugo
Sunday morning is rapidly vanishing in a storm of washing up, clothes washing, tidying up, and avoiding block-printing mayhem in the lounge (our youngest dau...
Thursday Night and Friday Morning
I m not entirely sure where the last few days have gone. The word relentless comes to mind - both to describe the working day, and the evenings.
Swimming Against the Tide
The sky fell this morning. Cats and dogs. Curtain rods. It fell last night too. I will admit to feeling sorry for the young children “trick or treating” for ...
So Near And Yet So Far
While tinkering with this and that this morning, I stumbled upon the blog of an old friend. Somebody I really shouldn’t have lost touch with, but somehow had...
The God Of Slow Things
I spoke to a friend on the internet this morning - the first contact with anybody outside my family for a couple of weeks, and we both found ourselves wonder...
A God Of Slow Things
I spoke to a friend on the internet this morning - the first contact with anybody outside my family for a couple of weeks, and we both found ourselves wonder...
Trying
How has it been a week since the last time I wrote in the blog? How does this keep happening? In the past I wrote almost every day. How is that possible? Wha...
The Harder You Work
You know how sometimes life continues on for months on end, without anything in particular happening? The last few years have been a bit like that. And then ...
Paying It Forward
A few years ago (actually quite a few years ago now) there was a popular twenty something TV drama in the UK that made stars of it’s cast. It’s still on now,...
Searching For Splinters At The Doctors
The clock is ticking towards lunchtime, and I’m yet to really get started with any meaningful work. Most of the morning has been spent sitting in the doctor’...
Stealing Minutes From The Sandman
You find me sitting in the dark at 1am again. I’m not entirely sure how this keeps happening. One minute I’m washing up the things from dinner - the next eve...
Tuning Out
I opened the word processor at 8:35 this morning, with every intention of writing a blog post before work started. One thing after another cropped up through...
I Never Thought Of That Before
It’s been a strange few days.
Watching For The Keymaster
Do you ever feel like you’re drowning in the various projects you’re involved in - but also realise that you started each project? I suppose you could say I’...
With A Little Help From My Friends
We went out last night - to help a good friend celebrate her birthday. We met at her house, summoned a taxi, and had the best night out in quite some time. A...
Twenty To Midnight
As the title suggests, the clock is whirling inexorably toward midnight once again. I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room, watching a pretend aeroplane wh...
A Minute Here A Minute There
I continue to struggle finding time to write. A window of opportunity opened at lunchtime, but before I knew it one thing after another conspired to slam it ...
Listen To The Trees
A scene from the first Narnia movie has been tumbling around my head all day - where the children are approaching Aslan’s camp, and the fallen leaves of near...
A Piglet Moment
There’s a moment in the book “The House at Pooh Corner” that has always stayed with me:
Finding Time
As a few might have noticed, I’ve returned to Wordpress. This had absolutely nothing to do with platforms - more about separation of concerns. I needed to us...
The End Of An Era
Queen Elizabeth II was buried today. It seems fitting that I write something to mark the day. I’m not a royalist, and never have been, but I appreciate a lif...
If Not Now When
Tonight (or this morning) I’m taking a leaf from a good friend’s book - and asking myself “if not now, when?”. I’m talking about the blog of course, and writ...
Still Here
Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated (if indeed there were any). I can’t remember the last time I let so many days go between blog posts. It’s ...
Too Tired To Think
I’m not entirely sure where the last few days have gone. In-between chores, work, running, writing, more chores, more running, more work, more writing, and e...
Run Like The Wind Bullseye
Alexa, the curious daemon that lives within an electronic gadget on the bedside table burst into life in her metronomic way once again this morning - filling...
Back To Work
I won’t lie - there was a feeling of dread at 7am this morning when the alarm clock filled the bedroom with an internet radio station. I drifted in and out o...
Descending Into The Twitterverse
This morning I have been dipping a toe into the Twitterverse. It’s a strange word, isn’t it - “Twitterverse”. The Twitter Universe. It really is a universe o...
Washing And Writing
We got home on Wednesday. It’s now Saturday. The washing machine is still going. I think we can see the end of the washing mountain now though (thankfully). ...
The Journey Home
We left my parents house in Cornwall mid-morning. The final hour was a huge game of backwards Jenga, where our belongings (and various acquisitions) were re-...
Final Day At The Coast
After booking a restaurant table last night, we visited Fowey today (pronounced “Foy”) - across the estuary from the small village we visited so often in my ...
Rainy Days And Aquariums
The weather has taken a turn for the worst over the last few days - so we’ve been rattling around my parents house. This afternoon we’re escaping for a few h...
A Day On The Beach
After a slow day rattling around my parents house, we escaped to the beach yesterday. A day of sun, sea, sand, and ice creams. We guessed that Saturday may b...
Walking The Coast Path
After a slow start yesterday morning we set off to walk the coast path towards a nearby fishing village together - with the promise of lunch in a pub danglin...
The Journey To The Coast
I started writing this post yesterday, while packing bags ready to travel - and then realised I had nothing to write about that hadn’t happened the day befor...
Preparing To Travel
The day began with a shower, a shave, washing up, tidying up, and a valiant attempt to pick a few things up in the living room. I’m not quite sure why I both...
Decompression
Two weeks to think about as little as possible.
Olivia
Late last night I wandered into the living room, looking at my phone, and interrupted my other half who has been binge-watching “The Mentalist” for the last ...
Strange Dreams
I woke early this morning, moments after a radio station filled the bedroom with music from decades past. After spending several minutes watching light patte...
Finally The Weekend
I’m having the quietest of quiet days today, and counting down the days until I stop work for two weeks. In-between all the usual household chores, we will e...
Challenges Westworld And Spaghetti Bolognese
Today has been a difficult day. A work project suffered a setback, and while nobody in particular did anything “wrong”, you can’t help wondering if there was...
Watching Wembley From Afar
The greater part of my family travelled to Wembley Stadium today, and witnessed England win the European cup. While the game was going on I checked in on the...
The Weekend Approaches
The week is finally slowing down - affording me the chance to write a few words.
In Between
I’ve had the strangest feeling recently - that I’m in-between. Not just work projects, or chores, or whatever else. Something bigger. Something you can’t qui...
On The Outside Looking In
As I grow older a realisation of sorts has happened - that the world will continue on with or without me, and that my participation in it is largely inconseq...
Simplification
A very short post this Friday afternoon that will mean very little to very few. My blog posts originate from an account at Substack, and are cross-posted aut...
What Part Will You Play
It’s been a bit of a week.
Sunday
If news reports are to be believed, the temperature here is going to reach 38 centigrade by tomorrow afternoon. I can’t see a lot of work getting done someho...
An Evening On The Green
We live on the corner of a green - surrounded on all sides by sprawling suburbia. Among the various families living in those houses we have made wonderful fr...
A Hummy Sort Of Day
In the book “The House at Pooh Corner”, Christopher Robin asks Winnie the Pooh what he likes best in the whole world. Pooh answers:
Thunderbirds Are Go
Today has been a good day. A long day, a tiring day, a draining day, but also a good day.
Music And Memory
I think somebody broke the temperature control knob on the sun this week. We’re into day three of temperatures that I can only describe as “hotter than balls...
A Quiet Day
Today has been a quiet day. A quiet day was needed. A day to rest and collect thoughts.
The Weekend Arrives
You find me sitting in the study at home with a cup of coffee between my arms while I write this post. The only sound in the room is the clickety-clack of th...
The End Of The Week
It’s Friday morning - or at least I think it’s still Friday morning - and I’m taking a break from work for a few minutes. I’m actually thinking about abandon...
Back To Work
It’s day five since the symptoms of COVID arrived like a car crash, and I’m back working. My brain is been in a bit of a fog for most of the day, but to be h...
Day Four
Based on the very unscientific method of counting back to when the aches and temperature first appeared, this is day four of COVID, and my body appears to be...
The One Where I Caught Covid
We went out for dinner last week to celebrate the end of college for my eldest daughter. She seemed a bit under the weather, but soldiered on - then over the...
Ends And Beginnings
My middle daughter officially finished college yesterday.
Sunday Night
In recent months I have often found myself writing blog posts in the dead of night. Perhaps it’s a reflection on the number of things I’m trying to juggle at...
Running And Quizzes
After work yesterday evening I pulled on my running shoes and went for a run around town. It seemed like a good idea at the time - but I had completely forgo...
Where Does The Time Go
Since stepping back from posting ‘every other day’ to the blog, I’ve discovered a paradox of sorts. While I thought having a few days between posts might con...
Weary
It’s “Father’s Day” in the UK today. I have mixed feelings about it - knowing that it was invented in the US along with “Mother’s Day” in the early 1900s (Mo...
Spread Thinly
How is it Thursday already? Where do the days go? It feels like my feet haven’t touched the ground all week. Take today as an example - somehow I’ve filled a...
A Day In London
Early yesterday morning I left the house with my youngest and eldest daughters, and travelled into London for the first time in over a year. A day of wanderi...
Bravery
It’s been a strange few days.
The Case Of The Vanishing Daughter
When we got up yesterday morning, my other half knocked on our youngest daughter’s bedroom door and poked her head in to say “wake up”. She wasn’t moving und...
Running Up That Hill
Invariably I try to get to a “good place” with programming before finishing for the day - yesterday that didn’t happen. Something wasn’t working, and it cons...
The End Of The Long Weekend
The four day weekend for the Queen’s jubilee is coming to an end.
Every Few Days
Has anybody seen my blogging horse? Or was it a bicycle? I never was good at idioms and analogies.
Half Past My Bedtime
When my middle daughter was about four years old, she loved talking. She still loves talking. She would often know what she wanted to say, but the exact choi...
Running And Haircuts
I began “Week 5” of the “Couch to 5K” running programme this morning - three five minute runs, with three minute walks in-between. I could really have done w...
Running Again
I went running first thing this morning - back to the “Couch to 5K” programme after a few days off after my right knee started to hurt. Fingers crossed if I ...
A Few Words
It’s been a few days since I last polluted the internet with any thoughts. I think the biggest surprise to me is that I haven’t really missed writing. I thou...
Stepping Back
I’ve decided to step back from the internet for a while. Slow down.
The Great Imaginary Aeroplane Escapade
It’s been a few days since I emptied my head into the keyboard. I’m not quite sure how that happens. It’s almost like the universe turns the tap on or off fr...
Note Taking Rabbit Holes
Today was a quiet day. A day filled with meetings, and a day spent excavating a rather deep rabbit hole with warning signs posted all around it. What’s in th...
Chore Days
Another day. Another few kilometres in the running bank. The schedule moved on to “Week 3” this morning. It’s so tempting to go further than the schedule dic...
Little By Little
That’s two week’s of the “Couch to 5K” complete now, and after six months doing very little indeed my body appears to be remembering how the whole “running” ...
Tinkering
Somebody take the keyboard away from me - I obviously cannot be trusted. While taking a break from research and development on a work project this afternoon ...
Forwards And Backwards
In what you might describe as an enormous re-invention of my blogging existence, I have moved the entire archive (including all manner of mangled text from t...
Xanadu
Throughout the last 48 hours I have been descending ever further into the federated internet rabbit hole. While trying to wrap my head around it all, the wor...
Exodus
Something rather interesting happened last night. Something I want to write about so I might reminisce in the future about “the day Elon Musk bought Twitter”.
Running Before Work
I went running this morning before work. Finally getting off my backside and doing something about my general level of health and fitness. Over the next coup...
In The Dark
Did you know that if you install the “Dark Reader” extension into your web browser, you can write in “Dark Mode” in the Wordpress editor? Well you do now.
Thursday
How is it Thursday already? What happened to the first half of the week? Why do I have a headache? Is three cups of coffee before 11am a good idea? Is the co...
Normality Resumes
I returned to work today. Or rather I cleared the chores, had a shower, helped our youngest with feeding animals at a neighbours house, and then sat at the s...
Bank Holiday Monday
The final day of my staycation started at 7am when I heard Miss 17 leave the house to go feed a neighbours cats (they are on holiday). She returned ten minut...
Chocolate Egg Day
I’m deliberately staying away from the television and social networks today - the insufferable hoard of “He is risen!” folks are busy preaching to the conver...
Waiting
I’m waiting for the new lawnmower to arrive, so I can begin to de-jumanjify the back garden. That’s a real word, right? It is now.
Lawnmowers And Music
Do I get a badge that says “honorary member of the old fart club”, or something? I went shopping at lunchtime on the internet, and ordered a new lawnmower. I...
Turning A Corner
My other half is sitting up in bed today, eating porridge and drinking lemonade - a huge improvement on recent days. Apparently her body is staging a spirite...
Making The Best Of It
Our youngest daughter had a quiet birthday at home.
Mr Covid Comes To Visit
My other half tested positive for COVID19 this evening. She has had cold symptoms for the last several days. How typical is that? She works in a school - she...
Slowly
Today was the first of my “staycation”. Nine days away from work. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to fill those days with, given that we can’t really af...
The Witching Hour
According to folklore, midnight marks the time in the day when witches, demons and ghosts are thought to appear, and be at their most powerful. There seems t...
Hello Midnight Old Friend
Here we are again - watching the clock slip effortlessly from one day to the next. Our marking of time is a curious thing, isn’t it - we place such significa...
Midnight Is My Friend
Here I am again, sitting in front of the computer in the dead of night, only too aware that I haven’t posted for several days. The world just seems to be get...
Late Oclock
I cooked dinner for the rest of the family this evening. Spaghetti Bolognese - one of the “make something quick that everybody will eat” meals that most fami...
Unexpected Discoveries
Once upon a time I wrote some programming (I’m a software developer in the daytime) to brute-force the problem of finding interesting blogs to read.
Tilting At Windmills
I planned to write a blog post late yesterday evening, but somehow it didn’t happen. That seems to be the story of my life at the moment.
I Cant Even
I read a newspaper headline yesterday parroting the words of a fringe “scientist” that the human race was well on it’s way towards extinction. I didn’t pay t...
Mothers Day
It was “Mother’s Day” in England today. Apparently the origins of mother’s day in the UK date back to an era when people worked in service (think Downton). I...
The One Where I Broke The Universe
Something rather odd happened today. Actually - scratch that - something very odd happened today. You need some back-story first though.
Reconstruction
After a few days break from the blogging universe - during which time I built myself a rather lovely island on the internet and then quite predictably burned...
Reconstruction
After a few days break from the blogging universe - during which time I built myself a rather lovely island on the internet and then quite predictably burned...
Going Out Out
We are heading out this evening for a meal at the local pub with friends - to celebrate my other half’s birthday. Escaping for a few hours of sensible conver...
Refactoring
The two week long internet island building escapade has come to an end. While looking at the collection of supposedly more thoughtful words I had migrated fr...
Constructing A Virtual Amiga
Too much work and not enough play makes Jack a dull boy - or at least, that’s what the pages from the typewriter in The Shining had written on them. It tends...
A Virtual Amiga
Too much work and not enough play makes Jack a dull boy - or at least, that’s what the pages from the typewriter in The Shining had written on them. It tends...
Interrupted
This morning a gas engineer arrived to do a service on our boiler. No sooner had he arrived, the boiler started throwing error codes - triggering the most am...
Twelve Days
Twelve days. That’s how many days I managed to stay away from publishing an almost-daily journal on the internet. If I’m entirely honest, I started writing a...
Inescapable Conclusions
If I’m honest, I can’t quite figure out how tomorrow is Thursday. Where did the beginning of the week go? Life, work, and everything in-between seems to have...
Forty Nine Laps
After scraping myself out of bed this morning, I wandered downstairs and was met by our youngest daughter - who was incredibly excited at the prospect of me ...
Little Grey Men
It’s the last day of February today. Where in the world did February go? I’m sure it was only Christmas last weekend. Is this how life works? A slow accelera...
Trust And Truth
While taking a break from work this afternoon, I have taken it upon myself to begin ripping the stock photos out of my blog and replacing them with my own. I...
Distracted
It’s been difficult to concentrate today given the unfolding story in the Ukraine. Don’t worry - I’m not going to write about it. I’m not qualified or knowle...
Catching Up On Lost Time
I’m sitting in front of the computer at the end of the working day, listening to a random playlist on a free spotify account. How is it only Tuesday?
The Beginning Of A New Chapter
My middle daughter played moved up to the “senior” rugby team today. She turned 18 back in January virtually unnoticed until the ladies team were missing sev...
Chores Pastimes And The Fediverse
After going to bed somewhat early last night, you might think I would have woken early this morning - and you would have been wrong. I slept like an absolute...
Hips Lips Tits Power
It’s an hour into the working day, and I’m taking a coffee break. I’ve become terrible recently for working straight through the day without stopping. Invari...
Movies And Music
I’ve been sitting in the dark of the junk room in front of the computer for quite some time now - wondering where the words are going to come from this eveni...
Tiredness Abounds
It’s been a long day. A long, cold, windy, wet day.
Another Train
I’m sitting on the train, heading east across the country towards home. Thankfully the trains and replacement bus services have connnected so far - hurtling ...
Writing The Manuscript
It’s the final evening of my stay with my parents. For the past two weeks my brother and I have stayed with them to help out - to take the pressure off my Mu...
Escaping For A Walk
Being away from my family is strange. You would think I would sleep more heavily in a room on my own, but the opposite has been true this week - usually up b...
Haircuts And Baked Potatoes
I cut my Dad’s hair this morning. He sat in a chair in the middle of the lounge while I figured out how to use his hair clippers. He received the same all-pu...
Leftovers For Lunch
Life happens so more slowly down here. It has taken some time to adjust - to slow myself down. Yesterday morning, after making breakfasts, washing up, and ra...
Daytime Television
While making meals, doing chores, and talking with my parents, the television is ever-present in the background. You don’t realise you’ve started watching it...
Drinking Tea And Cooking Bolognese
After meeting my brother at the railway station yesterday afternoon we immediately detoured to a grocery store so I could pick up the ingredients to make mea...
On The Train
I’m currently sitting on a train, watching the world hurtle past at quite some speed. After hiding in the junk room for the better part of two years toiling ...
Packing Bags
Tomorrow morning I leave for the coast. After a short walk to the local railway station I will board a succession of trains and buses that will (hopefully) d...
Cleared For Departure
Somehow there is only an hour of the working day left, and I find myself in the curious position of not having stopped at all yet. You might think - working ...
Spinning Plates
It transpires that re-arranging your work schedule to fit around an unexpected visit to the coast is more possible than one might have expected. After endles...
Expect The Unexpected
It’s funny how life throws curve-balls at you from time to time, isn’t it. Just as everything seems to be plodding along in a fairly straight line for a whil...
My Writing Routine
I thought it might interest others to learn how I go about this whole blogging escapade. How I write, what I use, how I post - that kind of thing.
A Few Minutes
I’m grabbing a few minutes from my day to empty my head into the keyboard. If I don’t do it now, something will crop up, and it won’t happen.
Exiting Bloganuary
After consistently responding to writing prompts for twenty two days, I’m stepping away from the Bloganuary writing challenge today. Life and other commitmen...
Its Turtles All The Way Down
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What is y...
Norma Jean And The Butterfly Effect
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “If you co...
Favourite Photo
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What is y...
Something Mysterious
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “Write abo...
Next On My Reading List
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What book...
Superpowers
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What is a...
Choosing Linux
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What is a...
A Life Lesson
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What is a...
A Challenge Faced
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “Write abo...
An Ideal Day
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What does...
Emojis And Emoticons
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What emoj...
To Boldly Go
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What does...
Grateful For The Little Things
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What are ...
Incorrect Assumptions
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What do p...
What Do You Like Most About Your Writing
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What do y...
Make Me Laugh
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What make...
Inspirational
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “Who is so...
The Communication Complication
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What is s...
Favourite Childhood Toys
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s writing prompt is “What was ...
Leaving My Comfort Zone
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s theme is “Write about the la...
Coast To Coast
This year I’m taking part in “Bloganuary” - a series of writing prompts published throughout the month by Mindy Postoff. Today’s theme is “what is a road tri...
Advice To My Teenage Self
While wandering the halls of Wordpress late last night I stumbled upon Bloganuary - a series of writing prompts that will be published throughout the month. ...
New Years Day
So here we are. Another new year. While it’s tempting to make resolutions, to “double down” on that which was intended but not done in the past, I’m resistin...
2021
New Years Eve
It’s mid-morning on the final day of the year, and you find me perched on the office chair in the home office / junk room that I have lived in for much of th...
Adventures Yet To Come
The end of one year and the beginning of the next is often associated with the opportunity to make changes. Change to one’s surroundings, one’s self, or to s...
The Days In Between
If you’re not working - which I’m not this year - the days between Christmas and New Year seem like a kind of vacuum - especially the last couple of years. W...
Boxing Day Morning
It’s the morning after the day before. A very different Christmas than those that have come before - certainly when compared against the last decade at least...
Counting Down The Hours
I have a couple of hours left at work before I stop for Christmas. Of course “at work” is a bit of a stretch - I really mean “sitting in the junk room in fro...
Two Sleeps Left
One more day of work left. Two sleeps left. I can’t imagine I’m going to get a lot done tomorrow, given that I’ll then have the better part of 10 days off. G...
One Day Closer
One more day down. One day closer to Christmas. Things are starting to slow down at work, although a continual stream of meetings has succeeded in filling ea...
Sunday Becomes Monday
The weekend is almost over. I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room in front of the computer, scratching around the darker corners of the recent past for an...
Reflections On A Year In The Medium Partner Programme
Late last year I signed up for the “partner programme” at Medium. If you’ve not heard of Medium, or it’s partner programme, I’ll quickly explain.
Becoming Santa Claus
After a night of broken sleep - caused no doubt by the COVID booster injection I received yesterday afternoon - I got up this morning and set out on a rather...
Charlie Brown And Half A Bottle Of Sherry
It’s a few minutes before midnight, and you find me sitting in the dark, drinking a glass of sherry, eating leftover crips, and listening to the Charlie Brow...
Charlie Brown, And A Bottle Of Sherry
It’s a few minutes before midnight, and you find me sitting in the dark, drinking a glass of sherry, eating leftover crips, and listening to the Charlie Brow...
The One Where My Uncle Died
It’s been a day. I heard a few hours ago that my Uncle died last night. The father of the cousin that died of cancer a couple of months ago. I can’t imagine ...
Monday
It’s Monday, and that’s all I have to say about that. The morning has been filled with meetings and administration work ahead of the start of a new project. ...
Monday Monday Na Naaa Na Na Na Na
It’s Monday, and that’s all I have to say about that. The morning has been filled with meetings and administration work ahead of the start of a new project. ...
No More Subscribe By Email
If you have been receiving my blog posts via email, I’m afraid your regular updates are about to end. I had been using “Mailchimp” to deliver them recently, ...
Late Night Radio
I’ve been learning something new over the last week. A technology, platform, and language that has been around for a few years, but that I’ve never crossed p...
Im Still Here
I’ve been sitting in front of the keyboard with an empty text editor for the last ten minutes. The well of words I have so often visited seems to have dried ...
Long Time No Write
Somehow a week has passed since the last blog post. I can’t remember the last time that happened. I suppose I should really fall back on the John Lennon quot...
You Never Forget
While reading the posts of distant friends, I sometimes find myself drawn into their lives - their hopes, dreams, happiness, and sadness. It fascinates me th...
Coffee Break
The clock is ticking past four in the afternoon and I’m taking my first break of the day. I have a pretty bad habit of not stopping - I tend to work straight...
Neverending
As the clock ticks past 11pm I’ve cracked open the programming text editor I’ve been using for the last several months to write blog posts. I guess when it c...
Retracing Seasonal Paths
Every so many months I find myself retracing paths I have walked before. Repeating decisions. Revising judgement. Changing my mind one way or another. Becomi...
The Great Blogging Escape
I’m sitting in the junk room listening to the radio, typing into a text editor. The clock is ticking towards 9pm and I’m wondering where Saturday went.
Recovery
After going into surgery to repair her broken leg on Monday morning, Miss 16 came home on Tuesday afternoon. For the next few days she has swapped bedrooms w...
Postscript
She was scheduled to come out of surgery early this evening. We took a chance and jumped in the car - making the hour-long trek to the hospital. After parkin...
Broken Bones
The last thirty-six hours have been something of a whirlwind. While playing rugby on Sunday afternoon my youngest daughter tripped, fell awkwardly, and broke...
Going Out Out
We went “out out” last night. We took part in a charity fund-raiser quiz in town - held by the local rotary club. If you’re never heard of such a thing befor...
In Other Words
It’s Friday. The end of another week. I’m sitting in the junk room in front of my work laptop, picking through source code of a recent project written by a c...
Kindred Spirits
In the early days of the pandemic the office owned by the company I work for was closed, and sold. Ever since I have spent my days sitting in the dark of the...
Dangerously Addictive
It’s been five days since the last blog post. How does that even happen?
The Bullet Journal Returns
After several weeks experimenting with all manner of technologically sophisticated productivity solutions, I retreated back to a paper bullet journal tonight...
Still Star Struck After All These Years
It’s the morning after Halloween. In the UK Halloween remains very much an import from the USA - I remember it gaining traction when I was young in the early...
Behold The Fediverse
I’m trying to think of something clever to write about diversification. I’m not coming up with much. Perhaps if I take a looked at a definition of fediverse ...
Bootstrapping
The first computer science teacher I had was called Mr Nicholls. He died young, as far as I remember - a few years after I left school. My memories of him ar...
The Magical Floordrobe
The rest of the household are home at the moment - the schools are on “half term”. You might think this would mean chaos, noise, arguments, and running battl...
Seeking Solitude
I’m becoming increasingly fed up with being called upon to help others with stuff (outside of my direct family, obviously). While it feels good to be able to...
Infinite Rabbit Holes
For the last two hours I have been sitting in front of a computer with the intention of writing something. Instead I have tumbled down rabbit hole after rabb...
Not Working
Today was the first day I have called in sick since the pandemic began. That’s about two years, isn’t it? Both of my younger daughters had gone down with som...
Psychopathic Cats
While waiting for the computer to download some updates, I’m taking the opportunity to empty my head into the keyboard. Hopefully you’ll forgive me if this p...
Escaping The 24 Hour News Cycle
Eleven minutes ago the clock ticked past midnight. It’s officially Monday now, but I’m going to go on pretending it’s Sunday at least until I fall asleep.
It Only Takes One Idiot
At 9pm this evening we walked into town - to the pub where our middle daughter waits tables, to meet her from work, have a drink, and walk home together. A q...
Cutting Most Of My Hair Off
I downed tools a few minutes ago for the first time today (read: pushed back away from the work laptop), emptied the washing machine, filled the washing mach...
The Lunchtime Reunion
For the first time in two years I met up with some of my co-workers at lunchtime for something to eat. It seemed very strange being in each other’s company r...
The Journey To The Middle
For the last several months I have been experimenting with Substack, Wordpress, Tumblr, and Medium - trying to figure out what works best for me.
Memories Of The Matrix
You find me sitting in the dark of the junk room, listening to an 80s playlist while quietly tapping away on the computer keyboard. My happy place. Maybe hap...
Ignoring The Thoughtless Idiots
It’s early on Sunday evening, the kids are hidden in various corners of the house - their noses inevitably buried in phones - and dinner is bubbling away on ...
Locked In The Bathroom
After dinner this evening we walked into town to meet our middle daughter from work. She started waiting tables at a nearby pub a few weeks ago - her first “...
The Inevitable And The Improbable
I have created a publication at Medium, and begun cross-posting my almost daily journal entries into it. In the past I’ve reserved Medium for the long-form “...
Losing And Forgetting
I rarely remember much about my dreams - but today seems to be an exception. Perhaps if the dream happens immediately before you wake up, it stays with you? ...
A World Without Facebook
Just before dinner this evening while finishing work, checking email, and taking a quick look at the various social sites I have accounts, I noticed Facebook...
Fear Uncertainty And Doubt
Something has been annoying me for months, if not years. You could say it all started with social media, but that wouldn’t be true. It really started with ta...
No Time To Die
After work this evening I headed out with my other half to the cinema - we saw the new James Bond movie - “No Time to Die”.
Autumn Arrives
Autumn has arrived with a vengeance. Over the course of the last week the temperature has dropped, wind and rain has arrived, and the nights are drawing in f...
Music And Coffee
The radio is filling the room with “Black Velvet” by Alanah Miles. I remember when it first appeared, and VH1 played it to death. Who remember VH1? I’m guess...
The Great Fuel Panic Of 2021
A pretty ridiculous story has been unfolding in the UK this week. One I thought I might write a few words about for the entertainment and amusement of intern...
Must Try Harder
The clock has just passed 1:30am. I don’t know why I’m still awake. I’ve spent the majority of the evening deep in virtual rabbit holes. The internet is a pe...
Friday
The clock is ticking towards 11pm, and you find me sitting in the dark of the junk room, listening to a retro radio station. It’s been a bit of a day, and it...
Quietly
I have coffee, cake, music, and an incense stick is filling the room with nice smells. Work is still relatively quiet - at least compared the headless rush o...
Returning
After a month spent hiding in a quiet corner of the Tumblrverse, I suppose these words signal a return to normality of sorts. A return to the madding crowd -...
Coffee Oclock
It turns out slowing down is difficult after several weeks chasing your own tail. I finally have time to take a step back - to take stock - to figure out how...
Ever So Slightly Furious
After my youngest daughter returned from rugby practice this morning, I accompanied her to the newspaper shop to hand her notice in.
Twenty One
My eldest daughter is 21 years old today. I guess that means she’s a “proper” grown-up now. Even though she still lives with us, we’ve been slowly shifting r...
Work Scrap Metal And Beer
I think I probably broke some sort of record for hours spent in conference calls this week. Hour upon hour talking, listening, writing notes, and so on. It d...
A Quiet Day
After what seems like weeks chasing my own tail, the world is slowing down a little - affording the chance to take stock and work out how to move forwards, r...
20 Years
Twenty years ago today a Rolls Royce sped past a church in Oxfordshire, horrifying several elderly ladies waiting for it’s arrival. Within the car, the bride...
Going Round In Circles
In-between juggling work, chores, and all manner of distractions earlier, I decided to go back to what I had planned to do in the first place, and just have ...
One Week After Another
I’m getting a little too good at “not writing” at the moment. It’s easy to say there are too many distractions, when the reality is that I’m just not setting...
Never Say Never
If you receive this blog post via email, you’re probably wondering what on earth is going on. Let’s just say I had a change of heart about blogging (yet agai...
Work And Money
As of this evening, my younger daughters have both entered the world of work. If you had told me this even a month ago, I wouldn’t have believed you.
Newspapers And Overtime
While talking to friends on the green outside our house yesterday evening one of them mentioned that the local newsagent was looking for paperboys and girls ...
Sunday Morning
It’s been a few days since I wrote anything in the blog. Life seems to have a way of diverting me from anything and everything at the moment. This morning h...
The One Where My Cousin Died
My cousin died yesterday morning. The one who’s wedding I went to two weeks ago. The wedding was wonderful, but it was pretty obvious he didn’t have long lef...
Wednesday
Where did Tuesday and Wednesday go? Can we go out and look for them? I vaguely remember them happening, but I’m not really sure.
The Need For Ownership
I’ve noticed a gradual shift across media and the internet recently that has troubled me greatly - a growing lack of intolerance and acceptance of people’s d...
Bank Holiday Monday
Prodded more by the necessity of alternative earning avenues than the pursuit of creativity, I returned to the Medium well this morning and expanded on the w...
Returning To Tumblr
I think it’s fair to say I’ve had something of a chequered history with Tumblr. I’ve been here since the beginning of the platform, and have been both my own...
Quietly Annoyed
I’m sitting in the junk room at home, which has a window over-looking the green outside our house. There was a group of teenagers gathered around the nearest...
Saturday Morning
Saturday is slowly unfurling in front of me, aided by two cups of coffee and a slice of marmite on toast. I’m sitting in “the junk room” accompanied by the r...
Maybe Im Amazed
It’s been a strange sort of day so far. The last day of my holiday, which has transmogrified from a vacation to a staycation - knocking around the house for ...
Cleaning The Shower
After getting up this morning, I got in the shower and discovered what happens when you go away for a week and your eldest daughter “looks after” the house.
The Journey Home
We left the coast a little before 10am, and arrived home a little before 4pm. Allowing for an hour in a rest area at lunchtime, about 5 hours on the road.
A Day On The Beach
On the final day of our visit with my parents on the coast, the sun arrived. After looking out of the kitchen window at breakfast time with my youngest daugh...
Day Four
I woke at 7am with cascading alarms from my phone, had a shower, brushed my teeth and wandered into my parents kitchen to make a coffee. The kids arrived in ...
Three Days Down
We are three days into our adventure on the south coast.
Morning In Cornwall
We left home a little after 10am yesterday morning, waving goodbye to our eldest daughter who is looking after the house, and set off towards the south west ...
A Family Wedding
Yes, I know I haven’t written anything here for an ENTIRE WEEK! Life gets in the way sometimes. Or perhaps this is the new normal - a few words each week, ra...
Before You Know It
I meant to write something on Friday. And then I didn’t. I meant to write something over the weekend. And then I didn’t. A pattern is forming. I suppose in t...
And Another Five Kilometres
I meant to write something earlier today, but work, home, chores, and everything in-between got in the way. Before you know it the day vanishes, and it’s nea...
Five More Kilometres
After waking up a little after 7am this morning I watched the clock tick for the better part of half an hour before scraping myself out of bed, pulling some ...
Parkruns And Campfires
I took part in my first “Parkrun” yesterday morning - a regular weekly 5 kilometre run around the big park in town. Parkrun operates all over the world - you...
One Meeting After Another
I have spent nearly all day in meetings - one meeting after another. I don’t think I could ever be a project manager, because their life seems to consist pur...
Movies Vineyards And Elitist Snobs
Last night we went out for the first time in 18 months.
Ankles Earwax And Wasp Stings
It’s been an eventful few days in my little corner of the universe. Where to start?
Strange Dreams And Fond Memories
I dreamed last night that I worked at an office a few miles from home that I cycled to. The route took me over a bridge - the only one for miles - and that b...
Friday Night
It’s nearly midnight on Friday night as I begin writing this post. I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room, typing this into the desktop computer. My other ...
Wednesday Night
It’s late on Wednesday night (or early on Thursday morning, if we want to be accurate). I’m sitting in the dark of the study in silence - the rest of the fam...
Four Kilometres Before Breakfast
After watching the alarm clock digits tick over for the better part of half an hour this morning, I eventually slid out of bed and retrieved a pair of runnin...
An Adventure In London
The alarm clock filled the bedroom with one of the national radio stations at 7am this morning. I listened for a few minutes before my other half rolled over...
A Quarter To Midnight
The clock is ticking towards midnight, and you find me sitting in the dark of the study, tapping away at the keyboard while a random playlist on Spotify trie...
Falling Rain
I woke at 6am to the steady rhythm of rain on the bedroom window, and remembered leaving washing on the line last night. For a few moments I thought about da...
Just A Few Words
A little voice has been whispering in my ear for the last few days that I’ve not posted anything to the blog - so I’m doing something about it. My fingers ar...
Bingewatching
It’s Monday afternoon, and you find me sitting in the junk room at home with a cafe-society playlist humming away in the background. Rain has been falling th...
Rocks Frogs And Wine
It’s Saturday afternoon, and you find me sitting in the junk room with an empty wine glass, reasoning with myself that two small glasses of wine are quite en...
Not Going Anywhere
Before going on something of a blogging sabbatical for a few days - an attempt to break the “must post every day” idiocy - I thought it might be a good idea ...
Cutting The Hedge
I’ve just sat down after spending the last hour trimming the hedge at the front of our house. Of course I write “trimming”, but the real scenes were probably...
A Burning Smell
The big computer hidden under the desk emitted a strange electrical noise yesterday morning, before switching off and filling the room with an acrid smell of...
The Reciprocation Expectation
There’s something about publishing blog posts on mainstream platforms that I’ve never liked. It never used to exist, and has only come about because platform...
Emptying My Head On Saturday Night
I’ve been staring at Evernote for the last several minutes, wondering how to begin this post.
Breaking The Cycle
It’s been a week since I last posted. After years writing almost every day, it seems strange - standing at the edge of the blog - rummaging around in my ment...
A Week Without Words
I’m struggling to remember the last time this blog saw my absence for as many consecutive days. I would love to say “I’ve been busy having all manner of adve...
A Future Filled With Words
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...
In Limbo
After working consistently through the the last 18 months, the company I work for are starting to take advantage of the “flexible furlough” opportunities to ...
Where Did The Weekend Go
It’s Friday evening, and the “week off” has vanished. I’m wondering where it went. The last few days are a mental jumble of running, working on the garden, d...
Visitors Staycations And Running
The sun is setting on a busy day. I’m sitting in the junk room, trying to gather my thoughts while sipping a cup of black coffee, and listening to a “Paris C...
Visitors French Cafe Playlists And A Week Of Running Ahead
The sun is setting on a busy day. I’m sitting in the junk room, trying to gather my thoughts while sipping a cup of black coffee, and listening to a “Paris C...
Sunday
It’s been four days since I last emptied my head into the keyboard. Almost unheard of. A good friend mentioned earlier that she needs inspiration to write - ...
The Productivity Trap
For years I tinkered with all manner of productivity hacks - paper task lists, apps, websites, and so on - I even read some of the more famous books, such as...
The Unfolding Story
Nocturnal writing escapades are becoming something of a habit. It seems to take an entire day for the reflective part of my consciousness to find it’s way fr...
Monday
Nocturnal writing escapades are becoming something of a habit. It seems to take an entire day for the reflective part of my consciousness to find it’s way fr...
Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest was held this evening in Rotterdam. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s the annual competition that launched ABBA into the stratosp...
Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest was held this evening in Rotterdam. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s the annual competition that launched ABBA into the stratosp...
After The Storm
The greater part of this week has been spent submerged in an alien computer system - trying to make head or tail of how it works, how it hangs together, and ...
The Early Hours Of The Morning
The clock ticked past 1am some time ago. It’s already Thursday morning. I’m playing the age old game of avoiding tomorrow while music quietly plays in the da...
Pathfinding
This morning the vast internet machinery heaved the minute hand of an invisible clock forwards another minute, and filled the bedroom with one of the London ...
And Then The Rain Fell
While the sky remains filled with cold grey blankets, and the cats keep watch on the garden from the warmth of the living room, Spotify fills the study with ...
London Calling
A little while after the sun rises tomorrow morning, no doubt after gazing at the ceiling for a little while, I will untangle myself from the safety of the b...
Nothing To Report
I’m trying not to read the news. The news is full of stories about the Indian variant of the coronavirus going on something of a rampage, and causing brakes ...
The Dying Of The Light
After noticing dusk had fallen a few minutes ago I wandered into the garden to get the washing in, and was met by a wall of cold air. While unpegging clothes...
Conjuring Audrey Hepburn
I’m sitting in the study (read: the junk room). Rain is gently falling outside, and I have jazz playing in the background once again. Through the wonders of ...
Coffee And Jazz
It’s late on Thursday evening, and I’m listening to jazz on the internet while sipping coffee. I’m going to blame Claudette. She tipped me off about a YouTub...
Ignoring The Tomorrowness
May the fifth be with you. Doesn’t sound quite as good, does it. At the time of writing it’s eight minutes past midnight, so I suppose it’s already tomorrow....
Star Wars Day
May the fourth be with you. Apparently today is “Star Wars Day”. It’s all a bit thtupid really, ithn’t it. Thee what I did there?
Bank Holiday Monday
It’s heading towards 10am, and I’m still the only person up and about at home. It’s a bank holiday in the UK today - many people have the day off work. Of co...
A Day Of Two Halves
The first half of the day was spent chaperoning my youngest daughter to a nearby town in pursuit of a meetup with several of her friends. This included waiti...
Bullet Journals And Video Games
For the last three years I have used a bullet journal to both plan, and record each day. It has sat on the corner of my desk, and served as a duplicate of so...
Remembering The Rubbish
Tomorrow doesn’t start until I wake up in the morning. The clock might have ticked past midnight a few minutes ago, but I’m going to claim it’s still “tonigh...
Rediscovering The Tribe
The last few days have served as a reminder of how wonderful the blogging tribe has become. I’m not talking about the niche food, fashion, or lifestyle blogg...
Introducing An Old Friend
Over the last few days I have been arm twisting a wonderful blogging friend that has remained largely undiscovered in the wilds of LiveJournal.
A Weekend In The Garden
Another weekend is slowly winding down. A weekend filled with gardening, and trips to and from the local rubbish tip. Over the last year, the rubbish tip has...
Grease Is The Word
It’s heading towards 8pm in the evening, I’m sitting alone in the junk room listening to the Grease soundtrack on Spotify while the light slowly dies outside...
St George And The Dragon
Today is “St George’s Day” in the UK. It’s not a national holiday, and is only marked in-so-much that most calendars have it marked in small-print. Quite how...
Does Talent Breed Laziness
I have been head-down with work for the last several days. Being busy is good. Unfortunately the garden has taken its cue to inject anything that will grow w...
After Effects
After receiving the first COVID vaccine injection on Sunday evening, the side effects began mid-morning on Monday. Throughout Monday, my body began to slowly...
Partly Vaccinated
I received my first COVID vaccination shot today. My age group became available to apply last week - I left it a few hours before looking at the website, the...
Friday
The staycation is coming to an end. Friday has arrived, supported by coffee, and bacon sandwiches. I woke a little after 6am, then convinced myself to sleep ...
Sixteen Years Old
My youngest daughter is now sixteen years old. The little girl that used to hold my leg when unsure, and raise her arms to be picked up when tired is somehow...
Asshatpocalypse
Lockdown has partly come to an end in the UK - not that some people took any notice of it what-so-ever. Pubs, restaurants, and shops re-open today, albeit wi...
Nowhere Quickly
It’s Sunday afternoon, I’m sitting in the junk room in front of the computer, the chores are done, my other half is out, and Norah Jones is singing about bei...
A State Of Continual Distraction
In keeping with the “falling off the blogging horse” theme I seem to have been following recently, I can feel myself being slowly drawn back. It’s curious ho...
Enough With The Idiocy
I disconnected the automagic plumbing between Wordpress, Tumblr, and Substack this morning. No more “read more here” links. You just get to read my idiocy wh...
Easter Sunday
wp:image /wp:image wp:html After planning an online event with some friends for the last couple of weeks, my other half arrived in the kitchen on Frida...
Wrestling With The Unimportant
wp:image {“id”:2107009292,”sizeSlug”:”large”,”linkDestination”:”none”} /wp:image After Wordpress decided to change the way they monkey with text, I’m sca...
Humpday
wp:image /wp:image After the craziness of the last several weeks, today the world seems to be slowing down somewhat. I’m starting to judge how busy each ...
Choose Your Own Adventure
wp:image /wp:image While sending messages back and forth with a friend this morning, it struck me that life can be compared to a “choose your own adventu...
Where Does The Time Go
I’ve been sitting in the dark of the study with the word processor open in front of me for a few minutes - trying to organise my thoughts. Somehow a browser...
Surviving The Social Internet
wp:image /wp:image This post originally appeared at Medium - where I often empty my head into the keyboard, and try to make some sense of the world.
Turning Into A Cat
I think I’m turning into a cat. You know how cats have favourite places to curl up or “be” that last for a few days at a time, before they move on to somewhe...
Midnight
I started writing this at one minute past midnight on Friday night. I suppose it’s really Saturday, but I tend to count it as the day before until I wake up ...
An Internet Fishing Expedition
After talking to a few friends who also post to Wordpress, and who have also seen an increase in follows, likes, and subscriptions from business accounts who...
Unused Holiday Rain And Fake Followers
It’s been a strange sort of day - and it isn’t over yet.
A Chromebook By Any Other Name
Late last night I discovered a company called “Neverware” created the software to install on a USB stick that allows a computer to boot from the stick and tu...
Reorganising My Life
For the last few months I’ve been experimenting with an online swiss-army-knife called “Notion”, that allows you to record notes, compile databases of inform...
Experimenting With Email
I breathed life back into my dormant substack account this morning. If you’ve not heard of Substack, it’s become the darling of the resurgent fashion to publ...
A Mental Health Walk
I walked into town after lunch with two of my daughters - a “mental health walk” - an escape from the walls that have been our prisoner for several weeks. It...
Pizza And A Movie
I started the week wondering if I would have anything to do - exploring a research and development project, but not having anything concrete to get on with. ...
The Struggle Is Real
I stopped drinking coffee yesterday morning (or the night before, in the interests of accuracy). I’ve had a headache all day - which I suppose is somewhat pr...
No Hair Dont Care
I got the clippers out this evening and cut all my hair off again. It was approaching “toilet brush” levels of sticky-uppiness, so I thought I should do some...
Tuesday Lunchtime
I had been entertaining the idea of escaping at lunchtime, and going for a walk. A few miles out in the fresh air on my own with a podcast in my ears. The we...
Hacking Anxiety And Loneliness
I’m not working today, so have spent much of the day juggling home school assistance with efforts to encourage my eldest daughter to step outside her self im...
Saturday
I started writing this post on Thursday, and provisionally titled it “Thursday”. I got no further than writing the title before I was called away. I then re-...
Falling Off The Blogging Bike
It’s not so much a case of “falling off the blogging bike” any more - more a case of “has anybody seen the damn bike?”. Or maybe “can I even remember how to ...
All Quiet On The Western Front
It’s been a remarkably quiet week in the Beckett household. I suppose the one stand-out achievement of the week has been gaining sight of the bottom of the c...
And Exhale
I watched the inauguration of Joe Biden as the new President of the United States yesterday evening, and then fell down an internet rabbit hole this morning ...
An Unexpected Staycation
I have the rest of the week off work!
Another 5K Around Town
Following my youngest daughter signing up for the “Couch to 5K” programme through school, she has to complete the training runs each week, and her sisters pr...
Sunday Night
It just occurred to me that I should write something on the blog. Somehow I’ve fallen away from writing nearly every day, to writing every few days. Perhaps ...
Sixteen Becomes Seventeen
My middle daughter began celebrating her seventeenth birthday this morning. How did that happen? Where did all the time go? The last time I looked she was ho...
Running On Sunday Morning
I went for a run around town with my youngest daughter this morning. She was supposed to be running with her sisters, but neither of them got out of bed. At ...
Loud Thoughts On A Quiet Weekend
It’s been very quiet indeed around here for the last few days. After a scare mid-week where my youngest daughter had to do a COVID test, we have stayed holed...
Witnessing History
I stayed up most of last night watching history unfold on the other side of the world - watching what surely must be the end of Donald Trump. Now I wonder wh...
Self Isolating
Our youngest daughter started coughing yesterday afternoon. Even though we suspected a run around town with her sister was the cause (it’s bitterly cold outs...
Bullet Journals And Erotica
wp:heading {“level”:3} ### Returning to work
Books Books And More Books
My other half just got back from visiting her family, who we have not seen since the end of last summer due to the lockdown. They met at a National Trust pro...
This And That
I’m sitting at the desk in the junk room, listening to Sarah Bareilles. She has become a favourite for the quiet moments. It’s Saturday afternoon - with one ...
Happy New Year
The clock is just ticking past 11am on New Years Day, and I’m still trying to wake up. I think we eventually went to bed some time after 2am. I hosted a quiz...
2020
Quiet Days
It feels like we are in a strange sort of limbo at the moment - not allowed to go anwhere, or visit anybody. We spend each day watching movies, playing board...
Chores Cats And Coffee
For the first several hours today I was the only person up and about - wandering from room to room, doing this and that. Completing some chores, starting oth...
What Day Is It
I just had to double check what day of the week it is. Apparently it’s Sunday. I imagine those reading this will divide into two camps - those that know what...
One Day More
No, this is not the beginning of a certain Broadway song involving all manner of catawailing (disclaimer - I love Les Miserables, before anybody starts on me...
The Santa Fun Run
After sliding out of bed a little after 7am this morning, I wandered downstairs and dressed myself as Santa. Father Christmas. Saint Nicholas. Only a very lo...
Running And Writing
I’m supposed to get up at 8am tomorrow morning and run around town in a Santa suit, accompanied by my younger daughters. I’m not quite sure how they’re going...
Making Christmas Magic
Yesterday morning I arrived quietly at the infant school in town, tip-toed into one of the staff rooms, and transformed myself into Father Christmas - comple...
An Unlikely Santa
I’m going to be Santa at the infant school on Friday morning. Can you imagine a less likely Santa?
One In The Morning
I think it’s fair to say that I’ve been “mailing it in” on the personal blog for the last few months - writing a little about this or that, without really wr...
I Ran This Morning
I ran this morning. After suggesting to Miss 16 that I could accompany her, I got up at 7am, pulled my shorts and shoes on, and was ready to go within minute...
Slowly And Quietly
I’m spending a very quiet Saturday hiding out at home, reading all the things, and emptying my head into the keyboard. It feels like the writing mania that o...
Midnight
When you look at the clock and it’s a few minutes until midnight, does midnight count as today, or tomorrow ? Asking for a friend.
Stealing Days
I still have a mountain of unused holiday days from my employer stacked in a heap in the corner. I’ve been chipping away at them now and again - taking the o...
An Unexpected Avalanche
You know how I wrote yesterday that a publication on Medium had syndicated a few of my posts ? After the initial surprise and excitement, reality kind of set...
Syndication
For the last few days I have been tidying up some old “think pieces”, and re-posting them to a shiny new blog at jonbeckett.com. I’m not posting them here, b...
Midnight
Each day seems to be falling into the next at the moment. I suppose it’s only natural when you work from home, and the projects you’re working on require any...
Choose Your Poison
A few nights ago I heard a mouse running around in our attic. I’m guessing it came in from the houses alongside, and I’m guessing it’s not alone.
Nowhere On Purpose
I’ve been sitting in front of the computer all afternoon, reading, tinkering, playing chess, and falling down internet rabbit holes. While sitting here, ther...
Rockstar Lifestyle
It’s 11pm on Friday night, and I’m the last person awake in the house. All I can hear is the blood pumping through my ears, and the rattle of the keyboard as...
Two Worlds
A few days ago I was approached at work - along with everybody else - about writing occasional blog posts for the company website. The posts will be shared w...
Running On My Own
At dinner yesterday evening, my middle daughter put all sorts of plans in place to go running several times a week before college. I suggested I could go wit...
The Day Alexa Landed In My Parents House
The day has been never ending. At one point I was on a conference call with work, the home phone rang, my mobile rang, somebody came to the door, and then my...
Running Chocolate Alcohol And Coffee
There is an X-Box 360 tucked away under the desk. It’s wired up, but nobody ever plays with it. I’ve just chanced upon the best life-hack ever with it though...
Second Coffee
It’s mid-morning on Friday, and I’m taking a break from everything for a few minutes. I’m about to go and put the kettle on in the kitchen, and make a second...
Every Other Day
I seem to have fallen into a pattern of sorts - posting every other day. I’m not quite sure how it happened - it certainly wasn’t intentional. Today’s post i...
Alone In The Dark
I’m sitting alone in the living room lit only by a lamp in the far corner, throwing long shadows across the room. A classical music radio station is quietly ...
Coffee And Spotify
It’s Sunday afternoon, and you find me tapping a few words into the blog, accompanied by a cup of coffee, and the Starbucks “Global” playlist on Spotify. I t...
Reinstalling
Deep breath. This is going to get very nerdy, very quickly. I’ll just get it over with, shall I?
Wednesday
I went for a run this morning. I would like to tell you that it was easy, and I felt great, and “go me!”. In reality it was hard work, I felt like crap, and ...
In Search Of Distraction
It’s been a strange sort of day - proof reading documents, checking, modifying, reading again. Hopefully I’m nearing the end of the journey I’ve been on in r...
A Whole New World
Perhaps it says something that even half a world away, I have been unable to distract myself from the United States election for the last several days. I hav...
Friday
I’m decompressing somewhat this evening, after spending the greater part of the week writing a lengthy technical document for work. I think it surprises my f...
Watching From Afar
I have been distracted throughout the day watching the American election results roll in. I tried to explain what was happening and why to my children earlie...
Randomly On Tuesday
My brain is slowly turning to mush. For the last several days I have been writing a technical document - a review of the system I have been designing for the...
Shrines And Scarecrows
I took the kids out for a walk today - over the hill to a nearby village, and on through the surrounding woods to a Buddhist shrine I heard about from a frie...
Saturday
Several years ago there was an award winning comedy on TV called “Community”. I discovered it late, and binge-watched four years of it in a matter of weeks. ...
Pizza Netflix And Self Isolation
Day two of the unplanned stay-cation.
Thursday
Day one of the mini-staycation has commenced. So far this morning I have had a shower, got dressed, made breakfast, put two loads of clothes through the wash...
Unexpected Time Off
After several weeks submerged in one of the most complex project design phases I have been involved in for quite some time, a window has opened up in my sche...
Strange And Mysterious
Here we are again - writing a blog post at half past midnight - wondering where the day (and the night) went. It’s becoming a habit. After several weeks grin...
Minecraft Wine And Cereals
My daughters are busy working in a mine this evening - in the “Minecraft” video game. After our middle girl asked about paying for a Minecraft server from he...
Junk Room Kingdom
The clock is ticking towards 1am, and I’ve just remembered about the blog. I suppose in some ways that reflects how much importance I find myself attaching t...
Saturday Morning
The clock is ticking towards 9am on Saturday morning. I’ve been up for an hour and a half already - chiefly to scrape our middle daughter out of bed. She’s p...
Thursday Night
It’s two minutes to midnight. I stopped work early this afternoon - I’ve been battling a cold I caught from the kids, and faced with writing a complicated do...
Cooking Cretins And Crew Cuts
Since beginning to work from home, I have started cooking on particular nights of the week. In past years I’ve been happy to wash up, and leave cooking to my...
Avoiding The Mainstream
I’m one episode away from the end of Westworld Season 3. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with my evenings after completing it. It’s been one hell of ...
Pizza Music And Tv
We look forward to the weekend throughout the week, and then when it comes we suddenly find ourselves deep into Sunday evening, wondering what happened - or ...
Experimentation
I think it was Fox Mulder that once said “nothing is ever really gone” - or words to that effect. Of course he was talking about the evidence of a crashed fl...
Connecting The Dots
I think it was Fox Mulder that once said “nothing is ever really gone” - or words to that effect. Of course he was talking about the evidence of a crashed fl...
Stir Crazy
Apart from the increasingly rare trips to the supermarket, and a walk to the park with my eldest daughter last weekend, I haven’t left the house for perhaps ...
Late Night Thoughts
After sitting in this chair for eight hours already today, wrestling with all manner of complex design problems for a system that only exists in schematics, ...
Sunday
The clock is ticking towards midnight on Sunday night. I’m trying to piece the day back together in my head - to recall where it went. Weekends seem to be a ...
Saturday
Today was a quiet day. A purposely quiet day. After the last few weeks working on complex projects I needed to give my brain a rest.
Negative
The COVID test result came in at 8:30pm this evening. Negative. A wave of relief swept through the house - prisoners no more. Within half an hour I was on my...
Self Isolating
Our entire household has to self isolate for the next day or so - for as long as it takes for my eldest daughter to get her COVID test result back. She has b...
People
I watched “As Good As It Gets” this evening - the movie with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt. I love stories about broken people - where being different isn’t ...
Pasta And Meatballs
I missed lunch again today. Actually - missed is a bit of an exaggeration. I was working on something more interesting than stopping and eating, so grabbed s...
Days Like These
I make promises to myself sometimes - simple things - easy promises to make. “I’ll start forcing myself to take lunchbreaks”, for example. And then I look up...
Strange Dreams
After falling into bed uncharacteristically early last night, I fell into a deep sleep and dreamed. It’s rare that I remember dreams - but one of last night’...
Doctor Who And Rainy Days
You know how when you meet acquaintances in passing, you ask each other “how are you?”, without really caring how each other really are? And how you typicall...
Not Playing The Game
After an email conversation with an old friend earlier today, I thought it might be worth expanding on the re-appearance of my writing at Substack, and it’s ...
Five More Kilometres
After staying up half the night to watch the morbidly hilarious US presidential debate take place in the US - mostly waiting for Biden to ask Trump to grow u...
Headaches
I was going to write a post this morning about mistakes - about how nobody is perfect, and about cancel culture. Then I thought better of it. Nobody wants to...
Five And A Half Kilometres
After waking with a start at my other half’s alarm clock this morning, I scraped myself out of bed, pulled some shorts on, and wandered downstairs in search ...
Daydreams
It’s Sunday evening. The end of four days respite from work, and a return to relative normality in the morning. I will admit to having looked in quite some d...
Nothing Days
I don’t really have anything to share today. I didn’t do, accomplish, watch, listen, or complete anything. I think sometimes we need nothing days - days when...
Many Sides To Every Story
For the last several years I’ve become increasingly frustrated with both journalism, and people in general. I think perhaps the root of it comes from publish...
So Called Day Off
After confirming the last few days of the week off work, I hit the ground running this morning at home - pushing two loads of washing through the machine (it...
Unexpected Staycation
I woke up with a blocked nose and a headache this morning, looked out of the window at a world filled with rain, and decided that running can wait. Running i...
Lunchtime Lunacy
After not getting up in time to go for a run this morning (actually there is more to the story - the kitchen was wrecked, so I spent the first hour of the da...
Midnight Messaging
I’m tired - properly tired - and it’s all my own fault.
Morning Run
The alarm clock went off at 6:45am, and a vague memory re-appeared in my head - something about waking up Miss 16, who had promised to go running with Miss 1...
The Anxiety Monster
It’s Sunday afternoon. I wonder at what point during the afternoon and evening it becomes the end of one week, and the beginning of another? Sensible people ...
Sushi
It’s our eldest daughter’s birthday today. Somehow she is 20 years old. I still think of her as the unsure 7 year old that walked through our door thirteen y...
More Running More Coffee
Some good friends came over last night and sat outside with us while I cooked food on the barbecue. I somehow managed to drink two thirds of a bottle of wine...
Nineteen Years
Almost exactly nineteen years ago, in about half an hour if memory serves, I stood at the business end of a church in Oxfordshire, waiting for the future Mrs...
Running And Coffee
I scraped myself out of bed before 7am this morning and went for a run. I must be mad. Or feeling guilty that I haven’t been running (or done any sort of phy...
Drama Queens
It’s Sunday afternoon, and the sun is shining. I expect the rest of the family will expect me to wander out into the back garden soon and start the barbecue....
Im Coming Too
I meant to write something late last night. I got as far as writing “it’s half past midnight”, but somehow didn’t get any further.
Thursday
The clock ticked past midnight forty five minutes ago.
People Ruin Everything
Slowly but surely, we’re headed back towards lockdown - because some people think they know better than everybody else. And yes, I’m absolutely talking about...
Priorities
I just got back from a walk through the warm evening air to the supermarket and back. It was intended as a mental health walk of sorts - I’ve been going incr...
Mostly Offline
I was going to to title this post “Working from Home”, but this is my life now - working from home.
Monday
I was going to to title this post “Working from Home”, but this is my life now - working from home.
One Less Pigeon
While making a cup of coffee earlier, my youngest daughter ran into the kitchen, pointing into the garden as she ran - our little black rescue-cat was stalki...
Minutes
One more day until the weekend. Twenty four hours. One thousand four hundred and forty minutes. Actually, that’s a bit of an exaggeration - it’s already head...
Tantrums
After a bank holiday weekend, I’m back at work. Back in the study. Back in front of my work laptop. For the first time in about five months, I’m wearing some...
Frustrated
I’m stepping away from the social internet for a while.
Friday
It’s Friday afternoon, with a bank holiday weekend stretched out ahead. I’m just taking a break from work for a few minutes to write this. It’s been a strang...
Thursday
It’s nearly 10am, and I’m sitting in the variously titled ‘study’ or ‘junk room’ at home, working. I’m a software developer. My job usually involves sitting ...
Legacy
I don’t think it’s any secret that I’ve been struggling to post anything worthwhile to the blog for the last six months or so. You might think after nearly e...
A Walk In The Park
We went for a walk this afternoon in Basildon Park - about an hour from home. Perhaps the highlight of the walk was a dragonfly deciding to land on my knee w...
Hitting It Out Of The Park
Miss 16 received her exam results yesterday morning - passing eight of the nine exams she took with flying colours. While it’s easy for me to write it, it wa...
Through Caverns Measureless To Man
The internet came of age when I was an impressionable teen. An infinite rabbit hole, filled with ideas, knowledge, thoughts, idiocy, adventure, and everythin...
Pretending To Fly
When I need to switch off after a week working on software development projects, the flight simulator has become something of a crutch. I suppose in many way...
A Small Cog In An Enormous Machine
I feel a bit like a small cog in an enormous machine at the moment - going round and round, slowly becoming worn, and not going anywhere. I’m sure that’s a m...
Heat Humidity And Lightning
I just looked on the weather app built into Windows 10 - because of course I can’t just look out the window. In the interests of accuracy, it’s 11pm and the ...
Comfortable In My Own Skin
I decided about an hour ago that it might be a good idea to update my profile photo everywhere - to better reflect what I have looked like for the last six m...
Monkeys And Music
I was going to go for a run this morning, but after realising the temperature was already nearly 30C at 8am, thought ‘maybe not’. Any thoughts of running thi...
Slogging
Today was difficult. The design of something I have been working through for the last few days got ripped out from under my feet, and changed - causing a lot...
Surviving The Day
I started the day with an empty page in my bullet journal, and filled it with tasks as the day went on - the kinds of things you would expect after being out...
Losing Myself In Music
It’s the final night of my staycation. I return to work in the morning - if you can call it returning. I’ll be sitting in the same chair I’m sitting in now, ...
Its A Serious Business
Somehow it’s already the first of August. How the hell did that happen? You know how you’re about to step in a huge dog turd, and you notice at the last mome...
Slowly
I started writing this post a little after 8am this morning, and then a world of chores, distractions, and errands took over. It’s Wednesday - half-way throu...
Not Feeling It
I got up this morning and went for a run, after not running for the last two days. I got up half an hour later than I should have, both my knees hurt when I ...
Ray And Marijne
I meant to write a blog post yesterday, but somehow the day got away from me. The days have been doing that a lot recently. I started writing, but got no fur...
The Loneliness Of The Short Distance Runner
I woke the first time with a start at 5am. I know this, because I looked at the clock before falling back asleep. I woke the second time at 8am, remembered I...
Fourteen Days
I have the next two weeks off work. Ten working days. Fourteen days in all. It all seems a bit giddy at the moment, although I’m mindful of a conversation wi...
Stupid Like That
After scraping myself out of bed this morning I knocked on Miss 15’s bedroom door, and quietly enquired if she might be running. No answer. I then wandered d...
Not Much Of Anything
You find me sitting in the dark of the junk room, trying to switch off at the end of the day. I’m listening to a Carly Simon album, and typing into a minimal...
Running Very Carefully
After a month keeping off a very broken toe, I finally got out running again this evening - although perhaps ‘running’ is an exaggeration - more of a gentle ...
Surprises On Sunday
It’s Sunday morning (or rather, what’s left of Sunday morning). We are heading out in an hour or so to a surprise destination with the kids. The local rugby ...
Ends And Beginnings
I visited the office yesterday - for the first time in four months. A flying visit to empty my desk, and collect a monitor and an office chair. The company I...
Lunchtime Thoughts
It’s Monday lunchtime, and you find me sitting in the junk room at home. I’ve been here on weekdays since the middle of March. Nearly four months now. The on...
Has It Really Been A Week
Has it really been a week since the last blog post? You would think the absence of pretty much anything from me over the last few days would mean an impendin...
Out Of The Loop
It’s Sunday afternoon, and you find me holed up in the junk room at home, forcing myself to empty my head into the keyboard. The broken toe is slowly healing...
Life Support
It’s nearly a week since my last blog post. In terms of ‘falling off the blogging horse’, this isn’t so much ‘fallen off the horse’, as ‘let the horse free, ...
Friday
For those that don’t know, I very rarely write blog posts straight into the Wordpress editor interface - I used to write everything in a text editor, save it...
Toes And Teeth
Somehow I have managed to break a toe, and a tooth. I know, it sounds ridiculous. On Tuesday morning the phone rang, and I ran through the house barefoot to ...
The Last Of Three Brothers
Our enormous ginger tom cat “George” is back in hospital tonight. After a major operation last week to save his life, complications arose over the weekend. W...
Virtual Flight
This “virtual flight” thing is addictive. While most people have been reading books, and watching TV shows during lockdown, I have been learning how to opera...
Friday
Yes, I’m still here. No, I haven’t shut the blog down (yet). If the last few years have taught me anything, it’s that I’ll always return. Eventually. I’m won...
Windows Doors And Motorbikes
The builders arrived at 8am this morning with a van full of windows and doors for our house. We have lived here for 20 years. The house is something like 80 ...
Rings Rabbits And Flying
I’m not entirely sure where this post is going to go. It’s three minutes until midnight on Sunday night, and you find me sitting in the dark of the junk room...
Heathrow To Bastia
After a few days preparation, I joined my Dad and his friends online last night for my first experience “flying” online. Twice a week the group meet up to fl...
Uncomplicated
A fellow blogger commented about the uncomplicated nature of my life today, and I couldn’t help smiling. My life appears uncomplicated, because that’s how I ...
Running Motorbikes And Pretend Plane Crashes
I’m at the stage of having fallen off the blogging horse where I’m starting to wander around looking for the horse, shouting it’s name from time to time - ho...
Saturday
Yesterday evening I posted something vaguely political on Facebook, and almost immediately regretted it - not because of the subject matter of my post - beca...
Humpday
It’s heading towards 1:30am, and somehow I’m still up - which is ridiculous, given that I’m supposed to be going running with my youngest daughter early tomo...
Pretending To Fly
I’m not sure that I have written so little for quite some time. Perhaps years. I haven’t so much fallen off the blogging horse, as taken the wheels off the w...
If Only We Had Some Cookies
My youngest daughter’s school has been taking part in a huge effort to rack up as many kilometres as possible in physical exercise while in lockdown - by eit...
Missing Days
I think it’s fair to say I’ve well and truly fallen off the blogging horse. After several years posting almost every day, I’ve dropped back to posting every ...
Monday Morning
The clock has just ticked past 9am on Monday morning, and you find me sitting at the dining table in the living room opposite my youngest daughter, who is st...
Friday Morning
It’s Friday, and you find me holed up in the junk room at home, putting together another quiz. This evening the company I work for are having a “virtual soci...
Almost Midnight
It’s been a day. Somehow it’s already heading towards midnight, and I’ve only just sat down to write something. I know, I know - I could scratch today, and w...
Unfollowing Drama Queens
I’m sitting at the dining table this morning, opposite our youngest daughter who is getting on with school work. My other half is in the junk room, working. ...
Running The Roads
Last autumn I took part in the “Couch to 5K” running programme at the local running club - to support my eldest daughter both with her fitness, and in her ba...
Jackanory
You find me sitting at the desk in the junk room - sipping coffee, looking back over the morning in my bullet journal, and half-watching the indicators at th...
Coffee Cake And Secrets
I’m sitting in the relative quiet of the junk room at home, listening to spotify, sipping coffee, and finishing off a piece of cinnamon swirl my other half m...
Slowing Down
While juggling various requests from my daughters, friends, emails, and instant messages today, I realised that I need to take a step back from everything fo...
Rambling On And On
Rather than talk to anybody in particular on the podcast this week, I’m talking to myself. I’m pretty sure this is a direct route to madness, but I’ll risk i...
Quiz City
This evening I performed the role of “Quiz Master” for a quiz with the staff and families of the school where my other half works. We used “Zoom”, and I crea...
Playing Games
I didn’t post to the blog yesterday, after a “run” of several weeks. I imagine the universe will now fall in on itself. I did begin wondering though - if the...
Hiding Out
I’m hiding out in the lounge. My other half has taken over the junk room (where the big computer lives), and is trying to cut together a video for the infant...
Relentless
The rest of the household have gone to bed, and I find myself alone for a little while. Alone in the dark with my thoughts. A little while to untangle and un...
Absolute Avoidance
I’ve been sitting in front of the laptop for the majority of the day, with a text editor open - ready to receive the usual stream of idiotic thoughts that in...
Sunday Morning
After waking up a little after 8am this morning I was very busy daydreaming when my other half rolled over, woken by the cat asking for his breakfast, and mu...
Its About Being There
I watched an old episode of “Halt and Catch Fire” this evening. If you’ve not seen it, the show ran for four seasons, and broadly told the story of the 1980s...
Its Life Jim
It’s been a day. After pulling the design together for a future project this morning, I wandered into the garden to find my other half sitting in a camping c...
Switching Off
After sliding out of bed at perhaps 7:30 this morning and fishing some running shorts from the long neglected ‘fitness’ drawer, I knocked on various daughter...
Crossing The Streams
I suppose the first few months of this year will go down as something on an experiment in my blogging history. I started the year off by walking away from Wo...
Homeschooling
I have the day off work today. Rather than sit in the study on my own all day, I’m at the dining table with my daughters, who are pretending to do school wor...
Catherine Sanderson Petite Anglaise
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”We have a rather special guest on the podcast this week.\n\nShe is one of the luminaries that helped forge the idea of posting...
Keep On Running
I slid out of bed early this morning, pulled on some old shorts and running shoes, and looked in on the children. There had been plans at dinner last night f...
Behold The Podcast
In mid January this year I started recording a podcast - a podcast talking to bloggers around the internet about their blogs. This morning I started to take ...
A Retrospective
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I look back at how the podcast is going so far - the challenges, the trials, the successes, and of co...
Running In The Morning
Late yesterday evening, after floating the idea that I might go for a run in the morning, my other half hijacked the idea, and invited my daughters to go wit...
Nothing To Report
Nothing spectacular happened today. The world turned once upon it’s axis, it didn’t rain, and I had cheese and pickle sandwiches for lunch.
One Step At A Time
I stayed up late last night and watched TV with my eldest daughter - we watched several episodes in a row of ‘Friday Night Dinner’, drank tea, and ate chocol...
Surrounded
After Miss 19 asked if I would be using the study/junk room to work in this week, I ran around the house like a madman this morning, making way to use the li...
Miss Fifteen
Today Miss Fourteen became Miss Fifteen. After wandering downstairs at about half past seven this morning, I found the younger children sitting on the couch,...
Everywhere
I suppose there’s quite a bit to unpack today - quite apart from it being ‘Easter Sunday’. As an aside, if you were wondering why I have referenced ‘Easter S...
Stacey The Sharess
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I talk to Stacey about blogging, writing, diaries, life, adventures, disasters, and of course her blo...
Saturday Morning
I was going to title this post “Saturday Morning, 9am” - like the Simon and Garfunkel song - but that was already an hour and a half ago, so it seems a littl...
Falling Off The World
Two factors have contributed to my recent disappearance from the internet at large. The first was the rather foolish decision to celebrate the bank holiday w...
The Early Hours Of The Morning
It’s just gone 1am in the morning. I’m sitting in the junk room, and was about to go to bed, but then thought ‘I haven’t posted to the blog yet!’, so here ar...
The World Keeps Turning Probably
Why the ‘probably’ in the title? Because I haven’t stepped outside today. I’m pretty sure the world is still out there, getting on with what it does. I would...
Isolation
It’s starting to get interesting - this whole self isolation lark. While I seem to have taken to it like a duck to water, that can’t be said for everybody. I...
The Order Of Things
A friend tagged me in a Twitter meme of sorts yesterday evening - inviting me to post three random photos of bookshelves in my home, and to nominate three fu...
Nowhere Man
For the first four months of the year I continued writing almost daily blog posts, but I didn’t post them anywhere they might typically be found. I had grown...
No Hair Dont Care
The hair clippers turned up this afternoon. I put them on charge for a while - until my other half arrived home from school - and then we assembled outside f...
Logical Fallacies
I’ve buggered up posting every day this week, haven’t I. Technically it’s already Friday 3rd April, but until I fall asleep I’m going to count this still as ...
Katy Katyland
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I talk to Katy about her blog at LiveJournal, long distance relationships, broadcasting on the radio,...
The Home Front
I woke up at 7am when the alarm went off, then fell asleep for another hour. It’s taken a few weeks to get used to not running around the kitchen like a madm...
Supermarket Adventure
After finishing work this evening we dared venture into town for the first time in two weeks. It felt strange - driving along almost deserted streets, but al...
Hair
I had a shave today. This might not sound like much of an accomplishment, but I was rapidly heading towards Grizzly Adams territory (anybody younger than 40 ...
An Unexpected Surprise
A few minutes ago our eldest daughter wandered in, and asked if it might be a good idea to do some online courses while stuck at home over the next weeks and...
Saturn 5
A couple of years ago the kids bought me a plastic model kit of the Saturn 5 moon rocket for my birthday. It sat on the shelf in it’s box for the better part...
Missed Vocations
I conducted something of an experiment today. While quietly getting on with work in the junk room, I left the children to their own devices - they know they ...
Lauren Back In Stilettos Again
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I talk to Lauren about life in San Francisco, the modern dating landscape, and her unintentionally no...
Achievement Unlocked
At lunchtime today I volunteered for a desperate mission to the corner shop - armed with a hand-written list of groceries, and “lady things” (a term coined b...
Finding Inspiration
While scrolling Facebook over the last few days, the mysterious algorithm decided to start sharing the posts of an ex-colleague with me. He has been absent f...
Board Game City
A remarkably quiet day in the Beckett household. I was joined in the junk room by my other half, while the children sat at the dining table and got on with s...
Home Schooling Begins
Today was our first “proper” day at home as a family - or rather, we thought it was going to be. My other half got called into work, but really just to put p...
Birthdays And Lego Kits
It was both Mother’s Day, and my other half’s birthday today. After a panicked walk into town yesterday morning, I managed to buy a LEGO kit. This might soun...
Lock Down
The government is finally losing patience with the people - and by “the people”, I absolutely mean the privileged, ignorant, and thoughtless. As of today in ...
Kristin Dialogue In My Head
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I talk to Kristin about life in Wisconsin, her earliest days using computers and the internet, workin...
Another Day In The Junk Room
At lunchtime today I walked up to the local pharmacy with my eldest daughter to pick up a prescription - and joined the remarkably patient queue of people st...
Begin Again
Well this is all very exciting. After months experimenting with a variety of blogging platforms, I have retreated back to my own small island in the middle o...
Look For The Helpers
Somebody I have known for years and respect enormously blocked me today, and I feel kind of awful about it. I wrote a comment on one of their blog posts abou...
And So It Starts
After provisioning a number of bits and pieces in “the cloud” this morning for some upcoming pre-sales demos, I noticed a notification about the first “daily...
A Walk In The Woods
Despite the rain that fell all day, I took Miss 19 out for a walk in the woods this morning - or perhaps more accurately, a walk through the fields to a near...
Bigging Up Telegram
It was only while standing in the shower this morning that I realised I had completely missed posting to the blog yesterday. A small voice in the OCD part of...
Natalie Coffee With Calypso
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I talk to Natalie about life in Louisiana, computers, the internet, computer games, table top board g...
Stir Crazy
A curious thing happens when I work from home - in short order all the dirty clothes get washed, the clean clothes get folded, and the kitchen remains somewh...
Nowhere Fast
I’ve had a cold for the last couple of days - nothing too bad - just a bullshit cold that any parent of children will roll their eyes at throughout the winte...
Self Doubt
Buried deep beneath the layers of fake confidence I have covered myself with over the years, I’m really still the same little boy that watched all the popula...
Retro
While the younger children ran off across the county to take part in rugby training sessions this morning, I waited for our eldest daughter to get up, before...
Mostly Offline
After attending a charity fundraiser last night and drinking more wine that I perhaps should have, I’ve spent most of the day either asleep, or offline. I th...
Jade Jessica June
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I talk to Jade about life, struggles, hardship, resurrection, and her blogging and modelling journey ...
An Unexpected Education
I’m not entirely sure how I’m still awake - or how I’m going to make it through the evening. We’re taking part in a charity quiz tonight, along with a team o...
Rain Rain And More Rain
It’s raining again. It’s been raining pretty consistently since just after lunchtime yesterday, and isn’t showing much sign of stopping. Quite apart from the...
Birthdays And Fighter Jets
I made one of the ladies in the office laugh before leaving work - she asked if I was doing anything special - I replied “yes, for a treat, I’m paying for my...
1973
I’m recycling an old post today. Hopefully you’ll forgive me - it is one of the better posts I have lashed together in the dim and distant past, even if I do...
Slow Sunday
It’s Sunday. I was supposed to be in London today with Miss 19. I got up at 7am, had a shower, brushed my teeth, got dressed, and cleared the kitchen while w...
New Bicycle
There comes a point in the life of most bicycles when the cost of repairing, or servicing them starts to approach the cost of replacing them entirely. I bit ...
Jon Jacob Thoroughly Good
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I talk to Jon Jacob about life, computers, the internet, podcasting, and his blogging journey with \u...
Finally The Weekend
I worked from home today. I have an arrangement over the next few weeks to work from home in order to take our eldest daughter to a regular therapist appoint...
The Onlyfans Hack
While scrolling through recent posts at Twitter earlier this evening I noticed that ‘OnlyFans’ was trending. Knowing that a couple of friends have accounts t...
Stupidly Fast
I’ve been sitting in the junk room staring at the screen for the last ten minutes, wondering what to write. I’m in the slightly curious situation of trying t...
Returning To Stormwind
While talking to a good friend on the internet a few days ago, they mentioned playing World of Warcraft, and I realised how long it’s been since I last playe...
Read The Damn Books
Given all the news stories being circulated today about Katherine Johnson - one of the women portrayed in the recent movie ‘Hidden Figures’, I have been wres...
Just About Surviving
I walked to work today, and probably will tomorrow too unless . My trusty bicycle is locked up outside the office - it will get pushed home this evening, and...
Boxing Beer Festivals And Rugby
My ever-reliable body-clock went off at 5am this morning - I rolled over in bed, pulled on the headphones I had prepared the night before, and listened to fr...
Tinika Wells Neeknacks
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I talk to Tinika Wells from South Africa about her blogging journey, taking part in NaNoWriMo, her in...
Falling Into The Weekend
I’m going to write a novel, where there is a department that gives out certificates for grown-ups who have succeeded in adulting for an entire week. I’m thin...
Laura And Jonathan
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”The first Wednesday show! Talking to Laura about the \u0022Birds of Prey\u0022 movie, the \u0022Dr Stone\u0022 manga, a wonder...
Slowly Sinking
Brace yourself. This blog post is going to consist mostly of random paragraphs covering each thing going on at the moment - mostly because I can’t be bothere...
Brooke The Little Blog Of Everything
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I talk to Brooke Cutler about life in Australia, acting, performing, computers, the internet, and of ...
A Mountain To Climb
I’m working from home for the next few Fridays - with a break in the middle of the day to accompany my eldest daughter to a regular appointment to help with ...
Lethargy And Procrastination
You find me sitting in the dark of the junk room, while the clock ticks past 8pm. I just sat down after a mad dash home from work, a rushed grocery shop, coo...
Listening To Life Stories
I would love to write something along the lines of “I stopped in town on the way to work this morning, and got my hair cut” - but that’s not quite what happe...
Hailstorm City
A few moments after leaving the office to cycle home, the tail-end of the storm that has shut most of the country down and flooded entire roads of houses in ...
Stormy Weather
If I had believed the weather forecasts last night, I might have imagined waking up to discover some sequin shoed legs extending from underneath the house th...
Ian Hope Half Time Pie
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I talk to Ian Hope about growing up in the north of England, music, football, computers, and his blog...
A Private Video Diary
I never quite know from one day to the next what damn fool escapade I’ll be involved in next. Tonight has been all about recording a private video diary - my...
Questioning The Universe
You might wonder, after posting somewhere in the region of five thousand times to this blog over the last seventeen years, if I might ever run out of things ...
Sitting Down Here
While listening to the radio in the kitchen last night, “Sitting Down Here” by Lene Marlin began playing, and I’ve been humming it ever since. I remember the...
Slowly Sideways
I worked from home today. I didn’t set out to work from home. After cycling to work, a call from my eldest daughter mid-morning about the internet connection...
An Adventure In London
This morning I got up bright and early, woke our eldest daughter with a bacon sandwich, and then set off for the railway station with her to spend the day wa...
Nothing Disappears Without A Trace
wp:heading Blogging
Pretending To Be Confident
While recording conversations with bloggers for the podcast, a common theme in the hours or minutes before we get started always seems to be:
Finding A Minute Or Two
After spending the greater part of the day working through changes to the leviathan I have been working on for the last several years, I cycled home through ...
Three Kilometres
I went for a run this evening with Miss 19. Actually, “run” is something of an exaggeration. It was more of a slow jog - or a fast amble perhaps. While it wo...
The Podcasting Story So Far
We are now a little way into the podcasting adventure, and I thought it might be interesting to expand a little on the learning curve I have mentioned a few ...
Fishermans Friends
I watched the movie “Fisherman’s Friends” this evening - about the group of Cornish fisherman that recorded an album of sea shanties a few years ago, that un...
Life Expectancy
We have a rescue cat at home - named Kaspar, after the cat in a Michael Morpurgo children’s book. He’s small, black, and scared of everything. While not pret...
Amy Lyon Smith Bedlam And Daisies
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I talk to Amy Lyon Smith about her blog \u0022Bedlam and Daisies\u0022 - how she got started, what sh...
Falling Apart
I saw a quote on Facebook a few days ago, commenting that once you get past a certain age, finding out what aches or pains you might have each day is somethi...
Recording
I spent much of this evening recording and editing the next episode of the podcast. I used “Cakewalk” for the first time, using all the lessons learned so fa...
Itunes And Facebook
In-between picking away at change requests for the colossal business automation project I have been working on for the last several years, I have submitted t...
Slow Puncture
For the last several days I have been cycling to and from work with a slow puncture in the front tyre of my bicycle. I pump it up in the morning, turn the pe...
Slowly But Surely
After the craziness of work, home, and idiotic escapades such as the podcast in recent days, I’m finally slowing down. There had been plans to visit a hobby ...
Talking To Laura About Tumblr Wordpress Snapchat And More
The first official episode of the podcast is out in the wild. I think it’s fair to say that it’s been a journey, and that the journey isn’t over yet. I’m sti...
Laura Tumblr Wordpress Snapchat And More
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I talk to my eldest daughter Laura about her attempts at getting a blog started at both Tumblr, and W...
Waiting For Spotify
There’s an old saying that warns about putting the cart before the horse. It sounds like just the sort of saying I might completely ignore - in fact I have c...
Small Moves
I chatted briefly with an old friend on the internet today about the various machinations involved in bringing a podcast to life. Just as I started firing qu...
Testing 123
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”To start the podcast, a look back at my own blogging journey, the platforms I have written on, and the people I have crossed p...
Podcasting Rabbit Holes
After taking our middle daughter out for her sixteenth birthday last night, we got home at about 10pm, and three hours later I somehow found myself in the de...
Stranger Things At Secret Cinema
It’s rare that I’m lost for words, but even two hours after a long journey home, I’m still trying to decompress, and absorb the events of the evening. It’s a...
Magic The Gathering
Our middle daughter is 16 years old tomorrow. I still think of her as the unsure little girl clinging to my leg at infant school - I probably always will. Th...
An Opportunity To Tell Your Story
Following a chance conversation with a distant friend this evening, I’ve been turning an idea over and over in my head. I have no idea how I might go about p...
Memories Of Mix Tapes
After a few days bumping along the bottom of the blogging barrel, I have arrived at the weekend armed with a glass of red wine, a new blog, and no idea what ...
A Secret Of Sorts
On Sunday afternoon I will travel into London with my daughter, arrive at a location I am not allowed to share with anybody, and will be greeted in a back st...
Cautiously Optimistic
After dipping toes back into the source code that ruled my life for much of last summer, I appear to be largely unscathed. This is worthy of celebration - or...
Coffee Oclock
I’m working from home today - to wait for a telephone network engineer visit - to figure out what’s wrong with our internet connection.
Nothing In Particular
I have been waiting most of the day for something sizeable to download from the internet. If our internet connection was behaving itself, I imagine it would ...
Nothing Is Something
I cycled to work this morning, and it was raining yet again. I can’t help feeling that I’m living in some kind of Truman Show inspired hell, where rain cloud...
The Well Of All Souls
I just got sucked into watching a YouTuber who’s entire career seems to consist of bashing anything and everything anybody does - and they have somehow becom...
Steve Mccune
wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:”This week on the podcast I talk to Steve McCune about his blog at stevemccune.com - how he got started, what he writes about, ...
New Years Day
It’s the first day of a new year. The first day of a new decade. You might think I would have invested some considerable effort in a thought provoking stream...
2019
New Years Eve
It’s the final day of the year. The final day of the decade. I’m not sure if the sentiment is shared by others, but I can’t help feeling a little bemused by ...
Working From Home
While preparing to bring my Christmas vacation to a screeching halt last night, and thinking through what I might need to prepare in terms of bike helmet, wa...
My Own Worst Enemy
Did I mention that the record player arrived yesterday? The speakers for it arrived today - I re-arranged the lounge slightly, and wired it up before my othe...
The Day After Boxing Day
It’s the day after Boxing Day, the clock is ticking towards 10am, and I was supposed to be going out for a run this morning with my eldest daughter. She is s...
Boxing Day
The children woke up on Christmas morning a little after 7am. After past performances, we considered this somewhat of a let-off. I got up with them, and wand...
Two More Sleeps
We finally made it to the cinema this afternoon to watch the final Star Wars movie (except of course it’s NOT the final Star Wars movie, because the Obiwan m...
One More Sleep
We eventually rolled into bed at about 3am last night. Somehow my other half turned our eldest daughter around, got her talking, and ate an entire box of cho...
Three More Sleeps
I think it’s fairly safe to say that our youngest daughter is winding herself ever tighter at the moment, in anticipation of the arrival of a certain visitor...
Winter Wonderland
Today was the first day of my Christmas holiday. I had daydreamed about spending the day holed up in the warm, reading the book I bought last week, and doing...
Heaven Help Us
The clock just ticked past 3pm - in a couple of hours I will finish work for Christmas - cycle home through the rain that has been falling for the last sever...
Not Playing Well With Others
Over the past few days - since discovering a community of writers within Twitter - I have been putting aside a few minutes each day to respond to questions, ...
Lunchtime Is The New Evening
Lunchtime is the new evening - or at least it seems to be when it comes to me writing blog posts. I guess this is a life-hack of sorts - forcing myself to ha...
Behold The Archive
After posting quite the most forgettable collection of words to the blog earlier today, I found myself with a few minutes to spare this lunchtime. Rather tha...
44 Minutes
After not taking a break at lunchtime, I’m forcing myself to down tools now, and invest the remaining 44 minutes of the day in myself. Of course “down tools”...
Sunday Afternoon Procrastination Club
While my other half stands on the touchline of a rugby field many miles from home watching our middle daughter’s latest attempt to injure herself before scho...
Good Intentions
This evening somehow turned into just the sort of recursive rabbit hole I seem to specialise in. It started out on a Linux laptop late in the evening, with a...
Boromirs Bookshop Conundrum
The rest of the family are sitting in the lounge, watching “The Polar Express”. I’m sitting in the study (read:junk room) writing this. I’ve just finished th...
Away From The Madding Crowd
After sliding into anonymity in recent months, I realised this week that my problem isn’t with blogging platforms themselves - my problem is me.
An Unexpected Discovery
This rather labyrinthine story begins the night before last, when the children decided - after I had already washed up, and cleared the kitchen - that it wou...
Automatic Unplanned Necessary
While scrolling through Twitter earlier this evening, I stumbled upon a random question - “Write three words that describe your style of writing”. Almost wit...
Returning To The Grind
I’m back in the office today, and determinedly taking a break over lunch rather than work straight though. It’s a terrible habit - working straight through -...
Forgetting To Live
While off work over the last several days, I’ve been quietly watching, reading, commenting, and liking posts across the various social platforms on the inter...
Christmas Arrives
After a morning spent sweeping the house for books, toys, games, and clothes that we don’t need or want any more, we visited one of the many charity shops in...
Yesterday
I just watched the movie “Yesterday” - the romantic comedy about the guy that gets hit by a bus, and wakes up to a world where the Beatles never existed. I’m...
Final Friday
Today is the last day of my week off work - apart from the weekend, but that doesn’t count really, does it? I’m spending the day at home listening to the was...
Christmas Shopping
I went Christmas shopping with our eldest daughter today - armed with a list written late last night by my other half. Of COURSE this was how I wanted to spe...
Returning To The Bullet Journal
After dithering quite considerably over the past several months, I have returned to using a bullet journal. There was a huge temptation to dick around with a...
Retro Video Games
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s in the UK, a huge skills gap opened up that the various science, technology, engineering and mathematics Universities be...
Self Imposed Reclusion
Throughout the second half of the Couch to 5K running programme over the last few weeks, I have been battling first a cold, then what appeared to be a second...
The Santa Fun Run
After getting up a little after 7 this morning, jumping in the shower, and having a shave, I pulled on a bright red Santa suit, and joined the rest of the fa...
Cascading Failures
On the way home from work last night a car forced me into the hedgerow alongside the road. When I got home I realised the front tyre of my bike was punctured...
Just Another Day
While many people I know on the other side of the planet have the day off today - to celebrate “Thanksgiving”, it’s just another day on this side of the plan...
Graduation
I finished the “Couch to 5K” running journey tonight. Apparently running 5 kilometres without walking at all is “graduating”.
Turning A Corner
I think my body might actually be starting to stage a fight-back. I have felt better today than I have in several weeks. The snotty nose has gone, and breath...
Sideways
My entire life feels like it’s going sideways at the moment.
Effort
I’m not sure I can really be bothered with trying too hard at this whole blogging escapade any more. Years ago I used to write long meandering posts about th...
Home Alone
The rest of the family have gone to the cinema to watch the new Frozen movie. I’m staying at home in the warm (and will be tomorrow too). I’ve now been sick ...
Rain Rain And More Rain
The heavens opened on me during my cycle to work this morning. Despite wearing waterproof over-trousers, and a supposedly waterproof top, I got soaked throug...
Switching On The Christmas Lights
After finishing work early this evening I wandered into town with Miss 19, met up with my other half, and joined the growing crowd in the high street awaitin...
Cannot Catch A Break
On the way to work yesterday morning a four wheel drive monstrosity driven by a trophy mum forced be into the hedgerow alongside the road. She had just passe...
Emptying Your Head
You know the funny thing about emptying your head? When you expose your thoughts for others to read, judge, and react to, you have to be damn careful.
Killing Time
I’m sitting at my desk at work, watching the clock. Everything I wanted to get done today is done - ticked off - complete. There is still an hour left. Befor...
Falling Into Shadow
It feels like I’m slowly falling away from the moving crowd. I find myself sitting, lost in my own thoughts, rather than reading and contributing to the onli...
The Week That Never Was
I returned home from work on Wednesday lunchtime, and went straight to bed. Actually, that’s not entirely true - I cleared the kitchen, tidied the lounge and...
A Few More Miles
I went to the running club again this evening, and put a few more miles in the bank. I quietly got on with the run, and kept half an eye on Miss 19. I’m not ...
I Still Havent Read Moby Dick
I got home a couple of hours ago, and opened the back door to a kitchen full of the smells of roast dinner, and an unfolding scene of mayhem in the kitchen a...
Finally Getting Better With No Bacon
After perhaps fourteen days, a thousand cups of tea, countless cups of boiling water laced with paracetamol, boxes of tissues, an entire pot of vicks, and th...
Kingdom Of Snot
I’m at home. I emailed work this morning and let them know I wouldn’t be in. My head seems to be in the curious position of generating vast quantities of sno...
Where Do I Get My Medal From
I just got in from running with my eldest daughter - the one that fell off the “Couch to 5K” wagon spectacularly over the last couple of weeks. She really, r...
Missing Days
I’m trying to convince myself that the sporadic updates to the blog are just a product of life landing on me like a grand piano from a tenth floor window, ra...
The One Where The Name Changed
After dithering about it for several weeks, I finally changed the name of this blog last night. I’ve been thinking about doing it for some time - to create s...
In Between
I feel like I’m in limbo at the moment. I’ve had a week off work, and have not gone anywhere or done anything of consequence. I suppose having a bad cold all...
Signs Of Life
I feel like I’ve fallen off the blogging bike again. In a strange sort of way, the longer you don’t post anything for, the less you have to say when you retu...
Panic Stations
My parents are coming to visit. Tomorrow. For the first time in ten years. It’s worth mentioning that they live down on the coast, and we get on famously - i...
Testing Myself
After a day spent cheering on both of our younger daughters at back-to-back rugby matches this afternoon (literally back-to-back - they were playing on paral...
Lagunitas
We went out for a few drinks with co-workers last night - to a bar in town that was refurbished some months ago. It’s worth noting how rarely we make it out ...
By Any Other Name
I’ve been wrestling with the idea of changing the name of this blog over the last few days - away from my name to something vaguely interesting and different...
Nine Minutes At A Time
I went to the running club with Miss 19 again tonight - we’re now half-way through the “Couch to 5K” programme. We ran three lots of nine minutes, with one m...
The End Of A Very Long Stick
I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year. I’m keeping it at the end of a very long stick. There’s a very strong possibility that I may never do NaNoWriMo again. If ...
Let There Be Light
If you’re visiting this blog post via WordPress, you’ll have noticed a rather drastic re-design has happened. Given that autumn colours are surrounding us at...
Saturday Evening 10Pm
I knocked on Miss 19’s bedroom door earlier this evening, and enquired if we were going running. Given that she was still in her pajamas, and that I was stru...
Finishing Last
We attended yet another fund-raiser quiz last night - this time for the local hockey team. My other half put a call out on social media for team mates, and w...
Getting Better All The Time
After work this evening I headed out with Miss 19 and put another few kilometres in the bank. I’m not sure what she’s been eating - it might have something t...
Sitting In The Dark
I have been sitting in the dark of the junk room in front of the keyboard for an hour. Nothing seems to be making it through my fingers and into the keyboard...
Putting The Work In
Four sets of six minutes running, and one minute walking around the back streets of town this evening with the running club. The running intervals are slowly...
As Little As Possible
When I went out for the regular training run last night, I knew there was some tightness in my chest, but dismissed it as a virus of some kind - all sorts ha...
Bill Bryson Rugby Sevens And Late Night Running
On Saturday night we visited Oxford - the city I think of as my real home - to see Bill Bryson present a show at the New Theatre in George Street. I had no p...
Running Around In Circles
After getting in from work last night (and eating home-made pizza), I finally made it out with Miss 19 for a training run - the one that was supposed to have...
Two Miles With Miss Fourteen
Ever since the children were little, we have tried to eat dinner at the table as a family. I suppose it started as an excuse to talk to the children, and to ...
Little To Report
I have never let the absence of anything interesting or exciting going on in my life stop me from writing at length about it, and I’m not about to start now....
Cycling On Canvas
I had a decision to make this morning - either walk to work again, or repair the punctures on my bicycle. Given that the walk takes perhaps three quarters of...
Sunday Night
I went out running with my eldest daughter again this evening - another ten sets of two minutes running, one minute walking. Our next run will be on Tuesday ...
Saturday Morning In Starbucks
I overslept this morning. Spectacularly. Well - spectacularly for me. I didn’t scrape myself out of bed until 9am, and then my head reminded me that I drank ...
First Training Run
After walking nearly 5K to and from work today (thanks Mr Farmer for puncturing my bike tyres with your hedgerow annihilation device), I ate dinner, washed u...
Theres Something In The Air
I’ve been here before. When life gets in the way, I think about shutting the blog down. I’ve followed through on it in the past, only to return a few weeks o...
Couch To 5K
My other half “suggested” that I might like to accompany our eldest daughter to the running club in town this week - to start on their “Couch to 5K” running ...
Departure Daydreams
It’s been an interesting day - not least because the huge project that has devoured my life over the course of the last few months has gone live, and is sudd...
Running Shoes
I just ordered a pair of running shoes from Amazon - they will arrive tomorrow morning. I haven’t run any sort of distance in 10 years. I’m still wondering w...
Making It To The Weekend
I’ve been sitting in the dark of the junk room for last last hour, with every intention of writing something, but instead tinkering with this and that, daydr...
Into The Netherworld
Just as I thought I might be hitting my stride with this whole “blogging nearly every day” thing, work took a colossal dump on my life.
As Night Falls
The clock just ticked past 10pm. It’s been an eventful evening. After a long and stressful day at work, I received a call moments before leaving - asking if ...
This Beautiful Fantastic
Late yesterday evening, while looking for a movie to watch with my temporarily incapacitated better half, I stumbled upon perhaps the most wonderful movie I ...
Retro
In-between washing clothes, tidying the house, and achieving very little of consequence today, I happened upon a rather pointless exercise that ate much of t...
Accidents Will Happen
My other half left early this morning to begin dressing a truck to carry children from the school she works at in the town carnival. While she did that I wan...
Switching Off
After being immersed in source code all day, I sometimes find it difficult to switch off. A huge system I have been working on for the last few weeks is edgi...
Fine With That
It’s heading towards midnight, and I’m sitting in the junk room, thinking back through the day. Unfortunately sitting in front of a desk all day writing soft...
Simplification
I removed all the stock photos from my blog posts earlier. I intended to write about it when I did it (at lunchtime), but one thing after another happened, a...
Unexpected Gifts
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room at home, typing this on the old computer that I’ve often written about - the one made up from various spare parts. I...
The Barn Dance
Last night I attended my first ever “barn dance”. I think it was arranged by a group of local churches as a fund-raiser for two charities - one providing aid...
That Friday Feeling
I was late for work today. I took a detour through town to get my mobile phone battery replaced, and to get a haircut. My hair had reached the curious “start...
Stop The World
Having been back from holiday for a week and a half, I already feel like I need another holiday. It feels like I’ve been submerged since my return, and am lo...
The Angry Little Man
Last Wednesday morning I found myself sitting in the foyer of the Holiday Inn in Leeds, Yorkshire, killing time before a meeting. I had scraped myself out of...
An Inconvenient Observation
Every time a politician, or person of faith sends “thoughts and prayers” following a shooting, the tide of resentment rises against them. The fact that such ...
Becoming A Grumpy Old Man
Before I start, it’s worth noting that my daughters would enthusiastically volunteer that I am already a grumpy old man, and my other half would confirm it w...
Seduced By Minecraft
If you’re wondering where I have been for the last several days - while not working, travelling, working some more, travelling some more, picking things up, ...
Four Trains And A Short Walk
After a dash home from work late this morning, and a madcap run around the house clearing up, tidying up, washing up, and fighting the on-going battle agains...
Back To Work
After two weeks with no schedule, no plans, no obligations, and no expectations, today arrived with something of a thump.
Making Time To Read
It’s been twelve years since I began commuting into London with work each day. For the better part of two years I would get up at 6am each day, catch the 7am...
Back To Reality
After a week of walking headland footpaths, eating pub lunches, building sandcastles, and paddling in the surf, we finally arrived home late yesterday evenin...
A Few Days Away
Tomorrow morning we fill the car with bags, and head to the coast to spend a few days with my parents. I’m not entirely sure I’ll be posting to the blog whil...
The Sleepover
At lunchtime yesterday a number of teenage girls - school friends of our youngest daughter - started arriving at our house for a sleepover in a tent in the g...
Sunday Evening
Usually on a Sunday evening I would be making sure the kids have clean clothes for school, putting things in my work backpack, washing up, tidying up, and ge...
16 Days
I’m officially on holiday. Two weeks off. Sixteen Fifteen days until I return to the office (I began writing this post late last night, but didn’t get around...
A New Chapter For Tumblr And Wordpress
While cycling to work I typically listen to podcasts. You might think this a rather dangerous thing to do while cycling, but the reality that most non-cyclis...
Stepping Off The Path
It’s heading towards midnight. Yet again I find myself wondering where the last several days have gone - every day seems to have become the day before. Thing...
Reconstruction
I began writing this post five hours ago. Somewhere along the way Sunday caught up with me, ran me over, and dragged me along the road for a bit before rever...
End Over End
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room in front of the old PC, tapping away at the keyboard in a text editor. It’s Friday night. While the imagined rest of...
Missing Out On Life
I should re-title this blog “every other day” given the frequency I seem to be posting at the moment. It’s not a conscious decision to slow down either - jus...
Remembering Who I Am
It’s already Monday night. Whatever happened to the ENTIRE weekend? I seem to remember last posting a few words on Friday night, and not really having time t...
Slowing Down Switching Off
It’s finally the weekend. After ordering Domino’s as a special treat, watching a ridiculous movie, and drinking a can of beer, I’m starting to switch off.
Just A Few Words
I can’t help feeling the title of this post is lifted from somewhere - perhaps Immortal Beloved? I’m not entirely sure. Anyway - just a few words this evenin...
Show Me Your Fingers
Yet again I find myself asking the universe what it did with the greater part of my day. Each day seems to fall into the next at the moment - a bit like the ...
Distractions
I started writing this post an hour ago. Somewhere along the way I ended up playing two games of chess, made a cup of coffee, and ate a load of rubbish - all...
In Search Of The Weekend
I wish I knew where the weekend went. There seems to be some sort of anomaly in the space time continuum - specifically located at the cross section of me, a...
Changing Things Around
In something of an experiment this evening, I’m writing this post on the old Apple iMac perched on the spare desk in the junk room at home. The last time it ...
Friday Night
I just spent the last few minutes standing in the back garden, waiting for the International Space Station to pass overhead. After a week of clear blue skies...
Sitting On My Hands
After drinking several beers last night and announcing a half hearted withdrawal from the internet at large, I’ve decided today that I might have been a litt...
What On Earth
I just re-wired MailChimp. Something a friend wrote in an email to me recently resonated - that all of the big platforms - WordPress, Tumblr, and so on - rea...
Hot
It’s heading towards 10pm, and you find me sitting in the dark of the study at home, trying to write this quickly before I melt. I bought some beer from the ...
A Summer Of Song And Laughter
There was a moment this afternoon, while our house was filled with fourteen year old girls, that I couldn’t help smiling - even though they were thundering u...
The Online Friendship Dilemma
We empty our heads into the keyboard, or share brief moments in photos and videos, and often come to know each other better than those that surround us in th...
The Climb
After a pretty spectacular falling down episode last night, I agreed to meet our eldest daughter for lunch today - to provide her an escape from work for hal...
The Struggle Is Real
I’m beginning to wonder when life will give me a break. While projects at work loom over me like an avalanche waiting to happen, the parenting adventure thre...
Going Around In Circles
I’ve returned photos to the WordPress incarnation of my blog. If nothing else, they brighten it up a bit. Publishing purely textual posts becomes awfully rep...
Whats It All About
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room at home, the soft glow of the computer screen lighting my fingers as they dance over the keyboard. I sat down to wri...
What Happened To The Weekend
Douglas Adams once wrote “I love Deadlines - I like the whooshing sound as they fly by”. I’m starting to think the same way about weekends. Since finishing w...
Staggering Towards The Weekend
I started writing this post an hour go. I’m not quite sure where that hour went. Perhaps it had something to do with the bottle of wine I bought on the way h...
A Nocturnal Adventure
After making it to bed a little after midnight last night, I had just put my book down, turned the light out, put the phone on charge, and was drifting off t...
Sideways
Today was one of those days where I tried valiantly to go forwards, but ended up going sideways, no matter how hard I tried. Have you ever had a day like tha...
Experimenting
While writing these words, a python script of my own invention is slowly delivering the motherload of all blog backups to write.as - the blogging platform I ...
Sunday
While sitting in Starbucks with Miss 18 this morning I installed the latest Harry Potter game on my phone (by the same company that made Pokemon Go). I won’t...
Slowly And Quietly
It’s the weekend! Finally a chance to decompress from work, kick back, watch movies, read books, and remember that life still exists away from source code, c...
Always
When I leave the office on an evening I usually try to call home - to see if I need to pick anything up from the supermarket along the way. This evening I go...
Exchanging Packages
I have nothing to report, which of course isn’t going to stop me from emptying my head into the keyboard for the next few minutes, because this is me, and th...
Almost Getting Run Over
While cycling to work this morning I was almost hit by a car. I was busy cycling along, minding my own business, and about to pass a junction. A car approach...
Dark Corners
While making a cup of coffee a few minutes ago, it occurred to me that I might write a quick blog post, and perhaps make it into bed by 10pm. While holding t...
Anti Social Media
I just checked the temperature on my phone - it’s 33 centigrade, at 10pm. Madness. I’ve been hiding out for most of the day on the shaded side of the house -...
Friday Nights And Conspiracy Theories
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room - sometimes humorously referred to as the “study” - with some quiet music playing, all the screens nearby switched o...
Memory Failure
While walking across the green outside our house this evening - en route to the corner shop to buy drinks and snacks to get us through England playing in the...
A Quick Question
For as long as I can remember, I have been searching out free stock photos and adding them to the top of my blog posts.
Ice Cream And Movies
There is a tub of chocolate ice cream waiting in the freezer for me. I bought it during a trip to the local store with our youngest daughter this evening. Sh...
Twenty Minutes To Midnight
I really don’t know why I do this to myself. I sat down in the junk room an HOUR ago, with all the intentions in the world of sitting down to write a blog po...
Godzilla
We have one of my school books from infant school somewhere - a book where half of each page is given over to a drawing, and the other half is ruled with wid...
Stretched
Reaching the end of the week feels like being tipped from a wheelbarrow into the weekend. It’s been a tough one. Not emotionally or physically - just mentall...
Finding Time
It feels like I haven’t found time to do much of anything recently - the huge project I’ve been battling with at work continues to grow - swallowing up devel...
Fathers Day Funfairs And Goats
I woke with a start at 4am, and blundered my way through my phone while trying to find the radio app - to listen to the Tyson Fury boxing match. The fight fi...
Slow Saturday
I have achieved very little today. I’m almost proud that I’ve achieved so very little. While most people look forward to the weekend, kicking back, and resti...
A Perfect Cup Of Tea
A long time reader of my blog has asked if I might describe how I make a cup of tea. Apparently being English introduces some kind of hoodoo into the process...
Tea Solves Everything
After a quite beautiful weekend, the sky decided that enough was enough today, and not content with rolling dark clouds across the hereabouts, it dumped seve...
Entitled And Aloof
While walking back from town earlier with groceries I turned a corner and came across a man in his mid-thirties walking his dog. The dog was attached to him ...
Wonderland
I woke up with a start at 4:30am this morning to an empty bed and a silent house. After a few moments scrabbling around to find my phone, squinting at the sc...
Single Handed
I’m sailing the ship single handed this weekend - my other half is taking our youngest daughter to France to watch the England ladies football team play in t...
Switching Universes
After a number of questionable corporate decisions recently, I’ve decided to quietly untangle myself from Google. This has meant walking away from their mail...
Dark Trivia
I’m sitting in the darkness of the junk room, listening to an internet radio station, and pretending I’m a writer. Of course we all know I’m really a softwar...
Nothing Of Consequence
The clock is ticking towards midnight, and you find me sitting at the dinner table in the lounge with the laptop. I started writing this post fifteen minutes...
Returning To The Well
After writing off much of yesterday, I finally got to the cinema with my eldest daughter on Sunday afternoon - a promised trip to watch “Rocketman”. A second...
Ending The Madness
After sitting on the green outside our house last night with friends drinking wine, and talking rubbish for several hours, I essentially lost the greater par...
Typographical Procrastination
Yesterday lunchtime I discovered quite by chance that the latest beta of Scrivener for Windows doesn’t crash in quite the same way the old version used to - ...
Written Hints From The Universe
Even though every logical part of my being tends to support the idea that the world is random, chaotic, and therefore the product of our interactions with it...
Every Other Day
While cycling home from work this evening through steady rain, I started thinking about this blog - that after months of posting nearly every day, I seem to ...
Bank Holiday Monday
The rest of the family are out for the day - leaving me here to wallow in my own silence, and hopefully get a bit better. My body still hasn’t got the note a...
Rocketman
I’m sitting in front of the keyboard at fifteen minutes to midnight, racing to empty my head. I guess this is one of those times where you realise you really...
Falling Into The Weekend
After a seemingly never ending week filled with stress and drama I can’t write anything about, the weekend has finally arrived - and not just any weekend - a...
Has Anyone Seen My Horse
We’re heading towards a month since I was last “well”, and I’m only too aware that I’m starting to sound like a scratched record. I’m certain my co-workers a...
12 Hours Sleep
After getting in from work yesterday evening I ate dinner, took some decongestant medication, went to bed, and slept like I haven’t in a long time. Of course...
All Good Things
The Game of Thrones has finally finished. It’s over. Done. Eight years of television has come to an end. The actors involved can all move on to other project...
A Chip On My Shoulder
I spent the greater part of yesterday working on the garden - cutting the grass, cutting the hedge, chopping back all the dandelions that had taken over the ...
That Friday Feeling
It’s Friday afternoon, and I’m taking a break from work for a bit to empty my head into the keyboard. The chest infection is slowly clearing up, replaced by ...
Crash And Burn
You know that whole idea I had about using Scrivener for writing projects? Yeah. That’s not going to happen any more, after it decided not to like the graphi...
Small Thoughts
After a week away from writing anything on the internet, I’ve not so much had time to reflect, as time to not think about anything. Actually that’s not entir...
Falling Off The World
I can’t quite believe I’m writing this, but it’s been a week since the last post to the blog. I can’t remember missing so many consecutive days for years, le...
Back To Work
The clock is ticking towards midnight, and you find me sitting in the dark of the junk room after watching the latest chapter in the Game of Thrones saga. I’...
Not Going To London
I was up at ridiculous o’clock this morning, showered, shaved, dressed, and ready to go. While brushing my teeth a small black cat stood in the doorway of th...
But First Another Cup Of Tea
I was going to open this post with “it’s Saturday morning”, but having looked at the clock, it’s already 2pm. Where they hell has the day gone already? Oh ye...
A New Laptop
Well… when i say “new”, I really mean “new to me”. For the last couple of years I have been carrying around a hand-me-down laptop that used to belong to one ...
Time To Go To Bed
The huge project I’ve been tinkering with during the evenings this week is starting to take shape. What started as a disconnected jumble of bits and pieces i...
Venting
The big problem with working all the time is you end up with very little to write about. Stories tend to require stepping outside the front door. For the las...
Unfathomable
After a self-imposed seclusion from the internet for the majority of today - while attempting to shield myself from any and all spoilers about Game of Throne...
Another 8 Hours
I just worked straight through Saturday. On the minus side, I lost a day of my weekend - on the plus side, I progressed the project I’m working on enormously...
Burning The Candle At Both Ends
I’m sitting in the dark of the study, surrounded by half-filled boxes of material, sewing, knitting, and the various bits and bobs associated with those acti...
Just A Few Words
The clock just ticked past midnight. I haven’t written for a couple of days, so thought it might be an idea. I’ve been working around the clock this week - t...
Submerging
After spending an hour yesterday cleaning my bike, and replacing the brake blocks (I’ve been cycling around with no brakes for the last few weeks - don’t tel...
Easter Sunday
I got up an hour ago - a little after 8am - and still find myself sitting alone downstairs. I can hear noises from the upstairs bedrooms, but nobody has appe...
The Life Of Brian
We went out to a local cinema last night for a “night out” (read: couple of hours out). My other half saw an advert online for a 40th anniversary showing of ...
Distractions Abound
While noodling around on the internet earlier this evening it occurred to me how many wonderfully distracting destinations there are. It also occurred to me ...
Embracing The Quiet
While walking into town to get groceries this morning I forgot to take headphones with me so instead of filling my head with a podcast or music, I had only m...
Humpday
How is it already Wednesday? How are there only twenty minutes left until the end of Wednesday ? Where the hell has my week off gone ? So many questions. The...
Quiet Discoveries
I have this week off work. I suppose in some ways today was the first “real” day off - because until now each day has been a bit manic - packing clothes, tra...
The Rugby Tour
After filling the car with bags of clothes, kit, and birthday cake on Friday, we set off late in the morning for a park just outside of Tewkesbury, in Glouce...
Disconnecting
We leave in a few hours, and won’t be back until Monday afternoon. After posting so frequently to the blog for so long, it’s going to feel strange storing th...
A Few Days Off
After cycling home from work this evening, buying pizzas for everybody from the supermarket and cooking them, I opened a bottle of fizzy wine and downed two ...
Winding Down
Tomorrow will be my last day in the office for a week or so. We’re headed away on Friday for a “rugby tour” with our middle daughter’s rugby team, and then n...
Losing My Quiet Corner
I’ve just moved the junk room around - giving up the desk the old iMac used to sit on so my other half can take it over with her sewing machine, in preparati...
Caramel Chew Chew
There is a tub of caramel ice cream sitting in the freezer - waiting for me to finish writing this blog post, stream a movie from the internet, and hole myse...
An Adventure In London
I woke with a start at 7am this morning. I don’t remember the content of the dream I was having, but remember a sense of loss when I came to my senses and re...
A Quiet Saturday
It’s mid-way through Saturday afternoon. All I appear to have done all day so far is wash clothes, tidy up, and noodle around on the internet. I had grand pl...
Unexpected Compliments
While winding down a series of meetings yesterday afternoon, I received an unexpected compliment. One of the ladies I had been working with all week noted th...
Chocolate Fudge Cake
I’m not entirely sure why I dragged myself out of a very comfortable hotel bed at some unearthly hour this morning in order to make it to breakfast on the st...
The Pretty People Theorem
I woke with a start at 6am when the alarm went off on my mobile phone. I have vague memories of a riveting dream, but it’s entire subject matter seems to hav...
Preparing To Travel
It’s just gone 2pm. My other half is at a rugby tournament with Miss 15, Miss 18 is in her room filling out various health and safety assessments for her new...
A Drink With Dad
I remember weekends. Or at least, I have a memory of what I think weekends should be, but I’m not sure if that memory is real or not any more. It involves wa...
Mr Foggs Residence
I’m not entirely sure that I know where to start - I just know I need to before the memories of the evening leave my head. I’m sitting on the train home from...
Preparing For London
A suit, a pair of shoes, and a dark grey t-shirt are hanging behind me in the junk room at home - waiting for me to return home early from work tomorrow afte...
Full Circle
After a somewhat epic journey around the internet over the last few months, I’m back where I started, and somehow enthused about writing something worth read...
Slowing Down Is Difficult
After several weeks of preparations, and a manic weekend trying to juggle everything involved in a major birthday party for my other half, sixty guests, cate...
The Morning After
It’s half past 10 in the morning as I sit down to write this. I’ve been up since about a little before 9am - showered, fresh clothes, and a relatively clear ...
The Calm Before The Storm
Nearly everything is now in-place. The hall is ready - tables covered - table decorations done - balloons filled - stage set - sound system in-place - lights...
Tentative
Earlier this year I holed myself up on an internet island of my own creation for a while. A respite of sorts from the avalanche of conversation that tends to...
Building Resistance
After tipping myself out of bed at 6:30 this morning, having a shower, putting some coffee on, and cooking a round of bacon sandwiches for the kids, I wonder...
Bookishly
It’s my other half’s “official” birthday tomorrow - the party is on Saturday night. I just bought her “official” birthday present from me - a subscription to...
Another Coffee
It’s Wednesday the 20th March 2019. I’m sitting at my desk in the office. I’ve been half-watching my email in-box all morning. I’ve made two cups of coffee f...
Working From Home
I didn’t plan on working from home today.It all began when I was cooking bacon for the children’s breakfasts at 7am this morning. Miss 18 wasn’t getting up, ...
Sunday Morning At The Rugby Club
It’s been a bit of a morning so far. My other half is out for the day at some sort of arts and crafts course, leaving me to shepherd Miss 15 to rugby. We cau...
Weekend Chores
I didn’t write a blog post yesterday. I’m not entirely sure why. I always write a blog post - every day. Even writing those words sounds like a lie now. Life...
Being Miss 15
It’s been a long day. Up at 6:30am to have a shower, shave, make breakfasts, lunches, clear the kitchen, and then somehow get the children out of the house. ...
Forty Five Minutes
I have roughly 45 minutes until Wednesday becomes Thursday. I’m trying to convince my mind that the end of the day is a deadline of sorts, and if I don’t pos...
Running Out Of Chocolate Spread
I’m having a night off from “the blog” tonight. I’ve been sitting here, staring at the screen for the last half hour, coming up with this and that - but noth...
How Is It Only Monday
There are ten days left in an idiotic sprint towards the end of the project I have been working on for the last year. Ten days to finish as much as possible,...
Living In The Gaps
I’ve been thinking about the John Lennon quote today - “life is what happens while you’re making other plans”. It’s so true. I’ve spent most of the weekend d...
Losing With Style
The school our youngest daughter goes to holds a charity bingo night every couple of terms. Tonight was one of those nights. We took supplies. We had such ho...
Made It To Friday
If there was a shop selling cake nearby, I might go and buy one. For me. It’s been that kind of week. If there was another shop selling toy medals and trophi...
World Book Day
Our household was a hive of activity this morning, owing to the arrival of “World Book Day”. Both my other half, and our eldest daughter work in schools - re...
Books Books And More Books
My brother-in-law gave me an Amazon token for my birthday last weekend. After spending quite some time perusing the internet behemoth’s online store, I ended...
Recreating A Year
I’m still waiting for Tumblr to sort out HTTPS on the account I setup yesterday. I’ve back-filled all the blog posts as far as July last year - tomorrow I wi...
Retracing My Steps
After a long and rambling journey around the internet over the last few months, I think I might have found a home for my blog. Tumblr. Yes, Tumblr - the very...
46Th Lap Around The Sun
Today marks the beginning of my 46th lap around the yellow dwarf main sequence star we call “The Sun”. I have somehow managed to wake up 16790 times in a row...
Sleeping All Day
When I got up this morning I felt awful. Really, really awful. While it would be easy to write it off as caffeine withdrawal after stopping drinking coffee a...
No Sugar No Caffeine
Two of my family informed me this morning that they are going “sugar free” for March, so I thought I might join them on their crusade. By “sugar free” they j...
First Day First Job
I’ve always been pretty good at getting up early. If I set an alarm, invariably I wake up a few minutes before it’s due to go off, and usually disable it bef...
One Day After Another
My bullet journal tells a story this week. Of course I can’t show you it, because the pages are filled with details about commercial projects that I’m not su...
Smoldering Embers
I’ve been sitting in the junk room, procrastinating for the last half an hour. It’s been a day. A long day. A good day in parts. The fiery exploits of yester...
Fiery Comets
Today started badly and got worse. I’m not going to go into what went wrong, why, who caused it, or anything like that. It was more a case of dancing among t...
Casting A Beautiful Net
It’s 7pm on Sunday evening. The weekend is almost over. I’m just trying to take stock - trying to fit together where the day went. One of our friend’s childr...
Overload
I’ve had the strangest feeling recently - like there’s just too much of everything. Too many websites. Too much information. Too many people. Too many conver...
A Walk Along The River
I had the day off work yesterday - a day away from the office, programming, computers - a day away from everything. The children have been on half-term this ...
Out Of Steam
I have the day off work tomorrow. I’m almost giddy with excitement. Ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. In all likelihood I’ll be taking the kids down...
Rugby Referee And Hockey Goalie
The children are on half term at the moment - which under normal circumstances would mean the house is relatively peaceful on a morning. Of course normal cir...
Almost Seduced By The Marketing Monster
In-between conference calls, writing an endless stream of source code, cycling home, washing up, clearing the kitchen, and paying my children to tidy their r...
Where Did Monday Go
How is it already 9pm? Where did Monday go? How did I manage to make it through the day after falling asleep at 2am, and waking up again 4 hours later? Why d...
Saturday
It only occurred to me this evening that I didn’t post to the blog yesterday. After flying home from Germany I raced home to continue working for several hou...
Winding Down
This evening I feel like a clockwork toy that is slowly winding down. It’s not that I’m particularly tired - just weary.
Counting The Hours
It’s half past nine in the evening, and you find me sitting in my fifth floor hotel room with the window open to the night air. Richard Marx is singing about...
Tuesday In Frankfurt
I woke with a start this morning, and took a few moments to get my bearings. Ah yes - a hotel room in Frankfurt, Germany. Far from home. After groping across...
Annoyed On A Plane
The card not working in the ticket machine in the railway station * People walking up to me, starting conversations in German
Ready To Go
It’s just gone 10pm on Sunday evening. My bags are packed, and I’m ready to go once again. Tomorrow morning I will get up a little after 6am, and go through ...
A Race Against Time
It’s heading towards midnight, and I’m racing to post something to the blog before Friday becomes Saturday. Yes, this is a mania to make sure I have at least...
Thursday
Do you ever have days when you sit down to empty your head into the keyboard, and you just sit staring at the monitor ? I’m having one of those days - and it...
Experimenting With Tumblr
I’ve put my mad professor coat on this lunchtime, and set an experiment up. After leaving Tumblr a couple of months ago, swearing I would not return, I have ...
Haircuts And Lost Money
I left the house a few minutes later than normal this morning, and left a note on my work calendar - “haircut”. After the second attempt at cycling into town...
Tinkering
I jumped down a rabbit hole of my own making today. Before describing the rabbit hole expedition however, it’s probably worth filling in some back story.
A Walk In The Park
Rather than let another weekend slip through our fingers while consumed with endless rounds of tidying, washing, and whatever else, I dragged two of our chil...
Winding The Clock Back
I’ve been playing with the old Apple Mac this morning - the one I used for NaNoWriMo last year - the one I told myself would provide a distraction free writi...
Snow Day
After dire predictions about an apocalypse the likes of which the country had not seen for some time, the much talked about and endlessly forecast snow final...
Morning Story
My body clock performed the curious feat of waking me up two minutes before the alarm on my mobile phone this morning. I’m not sure how it does it, but my bo...
Early Night
You know how you promise yourself an early night, but somehow one thing after another crops up, and before you know it the clock is ticking towards half past...
Preparing For A Snow Day
The weather forecast over the last few days had been predicting a night of heavy snow. It’s worth noting that anything more than about half an inch of snow t...
Finding A Few Minutes
It’s heading towards midnight, and I find myself sitting in the junk room in the dark, emptying the remains of my thoughts into the keyboard. Claire de Lune ...
Resurrecting The Imac
Over the course of the last week we have begun decluttering around the house - digging out long forgotten things from the back of cupboards, and the attic - ...
Catching Up
It’s Sunday morning. Actually, it’s nearer to Sunday lunchtime than Sunday morning, but we’ll try not to think about that too much. The washing machine is ru...
One Step At A Time
I thought it might be a good time to re-visit progress with the rescue kitten we took delivery of a few weeks ago - that the children named Kaspar. I’m not s...
Departures
It’s just gone 9am, and you find me sitting at a cafe in the departure lounge of Terminal 1 at Frankfurt Airport in Germany. My flight isn’t for another coup...
Not Going Out
As hinted at in the title of the post, I’m not going out tonight. The temperature on the streets of Frankfurt hasn’t got above zero all day. A few hours this...
Table For One
Oh how the mighty fall. After a wonderful evening out last night, this evening saw me braving sub-zero temperatures as I determinedly strode the - oh - two h...
An Unexpected Night Out
While packing my bag before leaving work this evening, the guy I have been working with over the last several months invited both myself and another contract...
Tuesday Morning In The Hotel Room
It’s 7:30am on Tuesday morning, and I’m back in the hotel room after breakfast. I had been thinking of going for a walk along the river, but it’s below zero ...
London Heathrow Terminal 2
It’s just gone 9am, and I’m sitting in the departure hall of Terminal 2 at London Heathrow. The gate has just been called for the flight, which is scheduled ...
Preparing To Travel
Throughout the day I have been quietly getting ready to travel to Germany again. A taxi will arrive early tomorrow morning and spirit me to London Heathrow, ...
Not Again Surely
If you just wandered into this post, and know my recent history on the internet, you’re probably thinking “not again, surely?”. Erm. Well. Yes actually. Agai...
Hello World Again
It seems only natural that a blog should begin with a post called “Hello World”. This isn’t really a beginning at all though - it’s the result of an endless ...
Contemplating Submersion
I’m contemplating submerging my blog once again - disassociating it with the “real world” me - disconnecting my name from it. I’m not sure if it’s a good ide...
Alone On Thursday Night
I’m home alone this evening while the rest of the family travel a hundred miles or so to watch our youngest daughter in a music concert that her school are t...
The Ticking Clock
My hosting plan at WordPress runs out in four months. Being completely truthful, I don’t know if I’m going to carry on - or even if I want to carry on. I kno...
Bullet Journal Productivity Tip
You know how everybody seems to be going on and on and on and on and on and on about Bullet Journals at the moment? I have a cunning tip to aid you in your p...
The Brand New Testament
I started watching an unexpectedly wonderful movie last night. Everybody else had gone to bed fairly early, and I found myself sitting in the lounge on my ow...
Nothing In Particular
We made it to Friday again! Do we get cake, or party poppers or something? It feels like we should.
Kicking Myself Up The Arse
This blog has been unspeakably rubbish recently. There. I said it. I’ve been churning out posts like some sort of cheap sausage machine - more because I thou...
Recycling And Resurrection
A little while after finishing chores last night and sitting down quietly to survey the remains of the evening, my eldest daughter sidled up to me, and caref...
Manic Monday
I have “Monday Monday” by the Bangles bouncing around inside my head today. It won’t go away. I think “Eternal Flame” by The Bangles may have been the first ...
Sunday Afternoon
After a Sunday morning standing in the cold on the touchline of a rugby pitch for two hours, stamping my feet and making conversation with other parents, I’m...
Every Other Day
I seem to have fallen into a pattern of posting every other day at the moment. This is not intentional. Hell - posting every day was never really intentional...
The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society
It’s funny how the universe works sometimes. After discovering our eldest daughter in floods of tears last night, I suggested a late night movie on the sofa ...
The Vanishing Cat Trick
The phone on my desk at work rang at lunchtime - it was my other half. Miss 18 was at home (she goes back to work tomorrow) - and was freaking out, because s...
2018
New Years Day
It always seems like the first post of a new year should have some important news to impart - the story of an adventure, an intelligent insight, or something...
Not Making Resolutions
So. Here you are. You made it to the end of another year, and so did I. I seem to have made it by the rather unoriginal method of putting one foot in front o...
One Day Left
At midnight tomorrow night the ball of mud we live on will spin a little further around the vast nuclear reactor it orbits. The day that follows will be pret...
Inbetween
Christmas already seems like a memory - which is a strange thing to say, because it was only a few days ago - but it is already falling into the past - somet...
Christmas
Just glancing at the clock, it’s a little after 10pm on “Boxing Day” - the day after Christmas Day. I’m not sure if other countries around the world call it ...
Christmas Eve
I spent the majority of today working from home - sitting at the desk in the junk room accompanied by my work laptop, mobile phone, and bullet journal. Elsew...
Two More Sleeps
The last few days have been a blur. After visiting friends on Friday night for drinks and curry, I spent most of Saturday washing clothes, tidying the house,...
Falling In Holes
The days are ticking down rapidly towards Christmas. I’m working through the holidays for the first time since having children. They are a little more grown ...
The Sun Doesnt Wait
While listening to a podcast en-route to work this morning, mention was made of a saying that had stuck with the presenter for years - “the Sun doesn’t wait”...
Burning The Candle At Both Ends
I’m not entirely sure how I’m still awake. After an invitation to dinner with friends yesterday evening, arriving home in the early hours, we were awoken wit...
Kaspar
I’m sitting in the junk room late on Sunday evening. Spotify is playing a quiet playlist in the background, and I’m sitting at the desk tapping away at the k...
Making It To Friday
I think there should be an award for making it to Friday afternoon. Or maybe an award for making it to the end of every day. If there was an award for every ...
Sitting In The Corner Rambling
You might think that after publishing somewhere in the region of four and a half thousand posts over the last sixteen years that I would be able to just sit ...
Memories Of The 486
One day, late in the autumn of 1991, my Dad floated the idea with me of selling the Atari ST, and buying a PC to replace it. We hadn’t been using the Atari f...
Unexpected Disasters
While sitting at my desk at work this morning, fielding calls from Germany, and wondering quite why the ridiculously complex invention on the screen in front...
Gulp
If you’re reading this, it means I finally left the relative safety of wordpress.com, and setup a blog outside the city borders. I’m on my own out here, wond...
Trapped In The Walled Garden
This evening I have been quietly working out what it would cost to leave the WordPress walled garden, and go it alone - host my own instance on some webspace...
Breaking Down
We were supposed to be visiting a foster carer looking after a young cat for the RSPCA today (the “Royal Society for the Protection of Animals, if you live o...
Sideways
Every time I sit down to write a blog post at the moment, something happens - or rather, something distracts me. You may have noticed the appearances of huge...
Memories Of West Oxfordshire College
The secondary school I went to didn’t have a sixth form - so after taking your GCSE exams, you had to make a choice between moving to the sixth form at Burfo...
Going Postal
Those that have followed my recent adventures on the internet will have seen both my retro-mac inspired run at NaNoWriMo, and the experiment with “Tiny Lette...
Keeping My Mouth Shut
I almost wrote a furious post at lunchtime about something that happened at the weekend - a series of things that happened at the weekend really - a direct r...
Secondary School
Another excerpt from this year’s NaNoWriMo - Enjoy!
Infant And Junior School
While sitting at the departure gate in Frankfurt Airport, waiting for my flight home, is occurred to me that I might release another chunk of this year’s NaN...
Final Day
I planned to write last night, but got sucked in by the World Chess Championship. Rather than go out for something to eat, I bought food from the supermarket...
9 Davis Close
I took part in NaNoWriMo this year, and set about recording a slew of memories from my early life. This is a small excerpt. Enjoy!
Strange Dreams And Distant Friends
I woke with a start this morning when the alarm clock went off on my mobile phone. I had been having a dream about a baby elephant chasing a guy along a beac...
Monday Morning Airport Club
The alarm on my phone erupted at 6am this morning, and woke me with a start. I don’t remember the dream now, but I remember wanting to return to it. I watche...
The Remains Of The Weekend
It’s 4:30pm on Sunday afternoon, and you find me sitting in the junk room, emptying my head into the keyboard of the old computer. It’s been making strange n...
The Return Of Blogging
Do you ever have the sense that something around you is different - that something has changed? Over the last few days I have become increasingly aware that ...
Bumhole
No, this blog post is not about questionable sexual escapades - apologies if that’s what you were expecting. It’s also not about a lunatic shooting somebody ...
Tinkering
I have spent the evening tinkering with the new “Twenty Nineteen” theme that’s in sort-of-secret development at WordPress. It’s not generally available yet, ...
Procrastinating Famously
I’m sitting at work, in the middle of the afternoon, procrastinating famously. It feels like I’ve been living in a bubble recently - apart from the co-worker...
Phone Charge Anxiety
While traveling home from London on Saturday evening, the battery on my mobile phone died - much to the amusement of my eldest daughter, who I had accompanie...
Black Cats
It’s now a couple of weeks since we said goodbye to Sam, and whispered conversations have begun to gather pace around the house - wondering if George, the re...
Hyperjapan
I’m catching the early train to London tomorrow morning with Miss 18 - we are visiting HyperJapan - an expo of everything to do with Japanese culture - food,...
Disappointed
While noodling around on the web this evening, I looked at a few of the more famous “A-List” blogs - to see if they are still going - and if their writing is...
Crossing The Finish Line
I wonder if it’s against the rules to wrap up this idiotic escapade with a few words about the experience of taking part in NaNoWriMo ?
Nearing The Summit
I’m not really sure why I’m trying to write fifty thousand words during November any more - I’m just kind of “doing it”, because I thought it would be a roma...
Halfway There
It feels like I’ve broken the blogging or journaling habit. While writing upwards of two thousand words a day for “National Novel Writing Month”, it hasn’t e...
Watching From Afar
The last 24 hours have been an interesting experience - watching results roll in from the American mid-term elections. I have no part in the circus - I live ...
Goodbye Sam
While running back and forth through the hallway to our front door last Thursday, Sam sat in the way - cleaning himself. He didn’t seem too keen to move, and...
Lots And Lots Of Words
I stayed up until midnight on Wednesday night, and wrote eighteen hundred words before falling into bed a little after 1am. I then wrote during lunchtime yes...
The Good And The Bad
While cycling home from work this evening through the early-evening darkness, an entire family walked out in front of me. The family comprised of two adults ...
Ignoring Hints From The Universe
I should really be taking the hint from the universe about attempting to complete NaNoWriMo this year. Life and work seem to be conspiring to warn me off it ...
The Stars Return
While walking into town this evening with Miss 13 on a doomed mission to purchase tea lights for the pumpkins the children have been carving for Halloween, I...
Oh To Be Thirteen Again
It’s been a strange day. I got up early, and after having a shower and getting dressed, noodled around with this and that around the house - putting things a...
In Fear Of The Mountain
A few days ago - when I made the decision to have a crack at NaNoWriMo this year, it seemed kind of like a mountain in the distance. I could see all of it, a...
The Calm Before The Storm
With seven days left until the idiocy of NaNoWriMo begins, it feels very much like the calm before the storm.
Sixteen Hundred Words
While tidying the study this evening, I looked at the games console and flat-screen television that have been taking up the desk in the corner, and that have...
Brain Dump
I’m not entirely sure where to start. I haven’t really sat down for longer than ten minutes all day. I’ve cleared all the washing, hoovered downstairs, clean...
Making It To The End Of The Week
So much could have been written about this week. So much. Of course none of it would have been useful, insightful, or interesting. It would have been cathart...
Resurfacing
I’m not doing very well at posting on anything like a regular basis, am I. Let’s just say that this week has been challenging, and I’m not going to write abo...
Never Ending
Today didn’t slow down, and certainly didn’t stop. The morning was spent filing expenses for last week’s adventure in Germany, and the afternoon knee deep in...
Rain
I’m sitting in the junk room at home, trying to warm up after spending the greater part of the morning in the rain, watching our middle girl take part in rug...
Recharging
While working my way through chores around the house today, a huge wave of tiredness has rolled through me. I think this is just the after-effects of working...
Friendship And The Internet
Being a distant friend on the internet is incredibly difficult sometimes. When those I have come to know are facing problems, my first instinct is to try and...
Padlocks
I made it through the third and final day working on-site - I fly home in the morning.
The South Side Of The River
After work this evening I went for a bit of a walk - the original intention had been to find a Japanese restaurant I’ve eaten at before, but discovering a nu...
Unintentionally Faking It
After work this evening I wandered back to the hotel, got changed, and made my way up the street towards the faux American bar I’ve visited a few times durin...
Monday Morning 9Am
The clock has just ticked around to 9am. I’m sitting in the heart of Heathrow Airport in London, a few yards away from one of the departures boards. My fligh...
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Opera
If you were expecting a blog post vaguely resembling the plot of the little known movie “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, you’re going to be ...
Preparing To Travel
A travel case sits on the desk across the study from me, filled with clean clothes ahead of another week in Germany. I’ve decided to hedge my bets about the ...
Miserable
After waking to a blanket of grey skies this morning, the weather has been growing steadily worse. A fine mist of rain is now falling, painting the roads and...
Missing A Day
Somehow, missing a day in the blog has become a “thing”. As I was getting ready for bed yesterday evening, it occurred to me that I hadn’t posted anything. I...
An Unexpected Movie Night
When I leave work on an evening, I call home. Invariably Miss 13 picks the phone up - she has been trained by my other half as an evil receptionist - this be...
Contradictions
It’s almost half past seven in the evening, dinner is finished, the washing up is done, the kitchen is clean, the washing machine is on, and I’m in the dark ...
First Eye Test In 5 Years
While sitting at work last Tuesday morning, I rubbed the tiredness from my left eye, and pain shot through my eye. I thought perhaps I had pulled an eyelash ...
Going Out Out
I’m sitting in the study at home (a rather grand title for the junk room, but it sounds sophisticated), at the old desktop computer, trying to think of where...
In Need Of The Weekend
Step away from the keyboard. Just step away from the keyboard. For a few minutes. Those are the words I find myself repeating - to myself. Take a break. Walk...
Finding A Reason
My writing used to be so much better than it is now. Well crafted posts. Explorations of thoughts and experiences, wrapped in a literary style that I’ve lost...
On The Outside
While scrolling through Tumblr this morning I started reminiscing about the “meetups” they once helped their users stage. You could register a meetup on the ...
The Fool On The Hill
Sometimes it feels like I’m this crazy person, sitting under a tree on a hill-top a little way out of town, typing away furiously on an imaginary typewriter,...
Autumn Arrives
It’s mid-morning on Monday and I’m taking a break from the mayhem for a few minutes. The day began in somewhat chaotic fashion, due to my other half picking ...
Apples And Pears
I hadn’t planned on writing a second post today, but after spectacularly losing several games of chess in a row online against lower rated opponents, I thoug...
Sunday Morning 9Am
While out for dinner with the newly crowned Miss 18 and the rest of the family and in-laws last night, I suggested that I might take her to London today - to...
From Keyboard To Screen
I have re-installed both my old desktop computer and laptop with “Elementary OS”. It’s a flavour of Linux that has been growing in pupularity over the last f...
Miscellaneous
Memory is a curious thing. While clearing the kitchen up last night I had a really good idea for a blog post. Unfortunately all I can now remember is that I ...
Returning To Frankfurt
I’m returning to Frankfurt again - during the second week of October. I still need to book a taxi transfer to the airport, but everything else is now in plac...
Turning Eighteen
At dinner last night I gently reminded our daughter about the reality of the situation she would face this morning. Yes, she can now buy alcohol, watch adult...
The In Between
I feel like I’m in-between everything at the moment, and I don’t know how to explain it. Not just in-between doing things more like I have fallen into some k...
Chess
While browsing YouTube videos late one evening a few months ago, I happened upon a presentation about the Google Alpha Zero project. If you’ve not heard of i...
A Very Short Post
Just a few words to tell those of you that follow me that everything is fine, there is nothing wrong, and the gaps in my almost-daily posts are just down to ...
Another Normal
After escaping late from the office this evening I returned to the hotel, folded my work clothes back into my case instead of preparing them for the morning ...
Walking The Streets
This post was going to be a rant-laden bucket of foaming invective about the failures of the Germany rail network, and the catalogue of first world failures ...
Departure Lounge
It’s 8:55am, and you find me sitting in the middle of the departure lounge at London Heathrow airport. I woke at 6am, had a shower, then made bacon sandwiche...
Footholds
I have somehow ended up with almost identical blogs at WordPress, Tumblr, and LiveJournal. Yes, LiveJournal still exists - stop laughing. Anyway - cutting a ...
Unbeliever
There was a knock at the door a few moments ago. A rather loud and confident knock. I made me way to the door, wondering if it might be the little boy that l...
Falling Into The Weekend
I’ve been sitting in front of the computer in the junk room for the last hour, thinking I should post something or other, but no words are appearing on the s...
Perceptions And Assumptions
Several times in the last few days I have caught myself worrying about what people might think about entirely innocent situations I write about, or find myse...
Things That Go Bump In The Night
After reading a few posts about various people’s personal experiences with ghosts recently, I thought it might be interesting to share my own. Only they are ...
Scattered Memories
Today is the last “official” day of my holiday. My other half has returned to work, our middle girl has returned to school, Miss 17 starts her new college co...
The Journey Home
Sound filled the room at 3am this morning, rousing me from fitful dreams and causing me to stumble across the room to reach the phone it was coming from. Aft...
Preparing To Travel
Today feels like we are in a curious sort of limbo. A taxi will arrive outside our house at 6am tomorrow morning to take us to the airport. From there we wil...
Slowly And Quietly
I’m writing this a few minutes after 9am on Sunday morning. Summer seems to be ebbing away - the mornings are becoming a little colder - a little less inviti...
Books Movies And Music
This evening finds me filling an Amazon tablet with books, movies, and music ahead of a week spent largely offline. A week away from the internet. A week fil...
Swimming With The Sharks
Miss 17 received her exam results this morning. The good news? She’s on the design course next year that she failed to quality for this year. The bad news? S...
Every Other Day
I seem to only make it to the blog every other day at the moment, which is ridiculous because I have the week off work. Im knocking around the house doing ch...
Sixteen Thousand Steps
Sixteen thousand steps. That’s what the Apple Health app tells me, on the shiny new iPhone that’s been in my pocket all day long. Nearly thirteen kilometres....
Two Weeks Off
I finished work at 5:30pm this evening, and cycled home through quiet roads towards home. The majority of the people that would normally be passive aggressiv...
Better Late Than Never
If all goes according to plan, at the weekend a parcel will arrive in the post with five iPhones in it. Both mine, and my other half’s phone contracts have c...
Distractions Abound
While working on some code this afternoon one of my co-workers wandered over to check if I had keys to the office. I glanced at the clock, and realised it wa...
Forty Thousand Winks
I’m not entirely sure why I missed a day on the blog yesterday. I suppose life happened. I’ll go with that. While I was at work, and the children were at a h...
The Floor Is Lava
Other people have relaxed weekends filled with rainbows, laughter, smiling faces, restaurants, sports, cakes, drinks, and all those other nice things. They p...
The Day Vanishes
Do you ever have days when you wonder what you did - where the day went? I know I spent quite some time signing my younger daughters up for XBox Live account...
Time To Dream
I’m not entirely sure where today went. A conference call with Germany first thing this morning uncovered some strange behaviour within the system I have bee...
Chess And Melrose
Welcome to the junk room. I’m one can of cider down, and have just closed the web browser in order to remove distractions. It’s just me, Scrivener, and the l...
Home Alone
Wednesday evening finds me sitting at a desk in the study, listening to Spotify, and wondering how much of today’s thoughts to empty into the keyboard. I’m a...
Walls
It struck me late last night just how expert I have become at constructing walls around myself. Rather than expand upon my own thoughts and feelings, Im more...
Trying Scrivener
I’ve owned a copy of Scrivener for years - since my first proper tilt at NaNoWriMo back in about 2007 if memory serves. If you’ve not heard of it, Scrivener ...
Over And Over Again
I sat down at the desk in the junk room to write a blog post an hour ago. All I have done so far is listen to music on Spotify. Music from my distant past. W...
Saturday Morning In The Bookshop
The day began with the clock radio bursting into life, and filling utter dross. I squinted my eyes open and watched the seconds and minutes pass on the bedsi...
Medication Banned Books And Conspiracy Theories
Today I am “working” from home. In reality, I called the client this morning and informed them that the likelihood of me getting much done today was pretty s...
Keep Taking The Tablets
Our eldest daughter has been in the wars - and that’s something of an understatement. For the last two weeks she has been fighting tonsillitis, and losing. S...
Half And Hour Left
I have half an hour left until I get to switch my computer off, climb aboard my trusty bicycle, and pedal my way back towards town. I’m already wondering wha...
Is This The World We Created
I started watching “Orange Is The New Black” last night. Yep - that’s right - I just started with the hugely successful TV show that’s headed towards it’s si...
Let There Be Pictures
This morning I took the earth shattering decision to start adding photos to my blog posts, and set about working backwards through the first few, choosing su...
Tired
I didn’t get up until nearly 10am this morning. This is unheard of, but not altogether unexpected after not falling asleep until 3am. Of course now my body i...
Backdated
I’m writing this post at 1:21am on Saturday night. The blog will show the date as Sunday. We all know that the early hours of Sunday morning are still Saturd...
The Weekend Arrives
I’ve started writing this post several times over the last hour. I’m still not entirely sure where I’m going with it. Rather than actually write anything, I ...
Big Thoughts
Several years ago - before children, when time was a thing to be toyed with and spent frivolously, I would write long, rambling blog posts about life, the un...
Down The Rabbit Hole
The clock is ticking towards 10pm as I begin writing this, and it’s really the first chance I have had all day to empty my head. If I was going to be lazy I ...
Lunchtime
It’s lunchtime at work, and I’m forcing myself to take a break. On a given day I sit here for hours - sometimes not leaving the chair all day, and then wonde...
A Case Of The Mondays
I’m back drinking coffee again. Or at least, I am this morning. I had a cup yesterday too. Before you roll your eyes, and say “I knew you wouldn’t last”, it’...
The One Where Miss 17 Cut Her Own Hair
When I came downstairs this morning I looked in on Miss 17 and reminded her that I had bought a subscription to “Crunchyroll” yesterday, which appeared to be...
Pool Party Shenanigans
You know how you head into the weekend sometimes, and you have plans to do so many things - things for yourself - time to yourself. And then the weekend arri...
Home
I’m at home today. I’ve been suffering with balance problems all week, and they seem to be linked with tiredness. I admitted defeat this morning, and decided...
Winning And Losing
We spent the greater part of yesterday evening sitting in a packed auditorium at the big school in town - watching a local celebrity hand out awards to stude...
Worky Worky Work Work
Apologies for the ridiculous title to this post. Or rather, no apologies what so ever. The last two days have been filled from top to bottom by work stuff. I...
The Weekend
The weekend. Where to start? I suppose literary history tends to point towards “starting at the beginning”, so that’s what I’ll do.
Home Again
I got up ridiculously early yesterday - or rather, I tried to get up. You know the room spinning feeling when you go to bed after a night out? It felt like t...
Thursday Morning
It feels like I’ve been in some sort of bubble during this visit to Frankfurt. Since arriving from the airport on Monday afternoon, I haven’t really gone any...
Thursday In Frankfurt
It feels like I’ve been in some sort of bubble during this visit to Frankfurt. Since arriving from the airport on Monday afternoon, I haven’t really gone any...
Lunch And Dinner
The alarm on my work phone woke me with a start at 6am this morning, right in the middle of a dream that seemed significant at the time, but is now completel...
Tuesday In Frankfurt
It’s 7:34am on Tuesday morning and I’m sitting in the hotel room. It’s cold outside - for the first time in weeks. Although I slept with the window open last...
48 Hours
A lot can happen in 48 hours. A blog can be removed from existence, and fifteen years worth of posts - four and half thousand of them - can vanish into the e...
All Good Things
I’m seriously considering drawing a line under this whole blogging adventure again. I nearly did it a couple of months ago, and then returned. I’ve soldiered...
A Quiet Weekend
After finishing work on Friday evening I cycled home via the supermarket with Miss 17, and picked up all manner of goodies to help out with dinner. The barbe...
Taking Your Daughter To Work
Late yesterday evening - while sitting outside watching kindling burn in the old chiminea that sits on our patio, Miss 17 appeared in the doorway of the hous...
The Dying Of The Light
After a day spent fighting virtual fires within the software leviathan I have been constructing for the last six months, I’m now sitting in the garden, slowl...
The One Where I Lost My Phone
You know how I switched back to a basic candy-bar phone at the start of the year? I’ve been using it mostly as a destination for text messages when logging i...
In Limbo
I commented recently that I had fallen off the blogging horse. The months of daily posts came to a crashing end, replaced with television, books, video games...
Im Still Here
Yes, I know I haven’t posted anything for several days. Since returning from Germany, everything has been ever so slightly mad. I got home late on Friday aft...
Flying Home Tomorrow
Another week in Germany comes to and end. Another three day development sprint, working like a lunatic while the project owners test, make changes, and call ...
A Few More Words
Very few words this evening, because it feels like I’m running out at the moment (of words, I mean). Perhaps an early night, a good book, and a long sleep wi...
Just A Few Words Tonight
Today was a long day. I woke a little after 6am, scraped myself out of bed, had a shower, got dressed, and wandered down to the breakfast area in the hotel. ...
Terminal 2
I’m sitting in the heart of Terminal 2 at London Heathrow airport once again. I have an hour until the gate is announced for my flight. I’m sitting here in c...
Whats In My Bags
Here we are again - packing bags ahead of an early morning taxi ride to the airport. It’s all becoming a bit routine. I thought it might be interesting (to m...
Saturday
This morning I was supposed to be tagging along with my other half to visit a nearby town to buy some clothes. Somehow the trip never happened. This kind of ...
Juggling
It feels like I’m juggling too many balls at the moment - somehow managing to keep them all in the air, but expecting to drop them all.
Struggling
I seem to have fallen off the “post every day” horse quite spectacularly in recent weeks. I’m thinking this is a good thing. I know one or two people look ou...
Silence Descends
The younger children are in bed already, put to sleep by watching the England team play their opening game in the World Cup. They had such high hopes, but co...
Falling Off A Rowing Machine
I’m not quite sure how it happened. One moment I was finding out just how difficult rowing might be, and the next the seat had slipped from under me, and I w...
Maximum Power Output
For a long time I kept up the routine (or habit?) of posting to the blog every day - sometimes a few words, and sometimes hundreds or even thousands of words...
Tick Tock Tea
After surviving a couple of days drinking water, and hopefully making it through the withdrawal from tea and coffee, it occurred to me this evening that I co...
Detox
I stopped drinking tea and coffee today. Completely.
Detox
I stopped drinking tea and coffee today. Completely.
Back To Work
After the adventure in Germany last week, it was back to earth with a bump today - emptying the dishwasher, making breakfasts and lunches, washing my bike, f...
Nimrod
I bought a music magazine this morning for the first time in years. I was wandering around the local stationery shop with Miss 13 - who had some money burnin...
Home
I woke ten minutes before the alarm on the phone this morning, and showed my face for breakfast in the hotel a little after 6am. After downing a coffee and s...
Home In The Morning
I made it to the end of three days on-site in Germany. There is already talk of further visits later in the year - another in two weeks that is already booke...
Walking The City Streets
After work this evening I dropped my bag at the hotel, changed my clothes, and set out along the river to the bar I have visited for the last several nights....
One Day Down
The day began at 6am when the alarm clock went off on my mobile phone. This wasn’t the first time I woke up this morning of course, because guess who fell as...
Departure
It’s 9:04 on Monday morning, and I’m sitting in the departure hall of Terminal 2 at London’s Heathrow Airport. I’ve chosen to sit right in the middle of the ...
Alongside The River
After arriving at Frankfurt Airport, and picking my way through the various hurdles that have become so familiar, I finally found myself standing in the queu...
Preparing To Fly
At breakfast time tomorrow morning a taxi will hopefully arrive at the end of our drive, waiting to whisk me to Heathrow Airport, ahead of another week in Fr...
The One Where I Met Greedo
Miss 17 and I took the twentieth bus out of town this morning - it would have been the first bus, but I couldn’t find any dynamite to explode her out of bed....
Second Thoughts
I’m having second thoughts about living on my own remote blogging island, out in the middle of nowhere. Just so you know. Does this mean I’m coming back ? Ma...
From One Disaster To The Next
You know the one where your other half delivers your youngest daughter to the final day of football camp, then drops the car off for it’s MOT (Ministry of Tr...
Thunderbolts And Lightning
The thunderbolts, lightning, cats, dogs, and whatever else that were forecast to fall on the United Kingdom today are conspicuous by their absence. The vario...
Rainy Days Off
It’s just after lunch. I think it’s Wednesday - it’s hard to tell - the days are running into one another. I wonder how retired people keep track of the day ...
New Broom Sweeps Clean
This morning I have been going through the various blogs I follow on the internet - removing those that stopped posting some months ago. It feels strange, un...
Bank Holiday Monday
It’s a bank holiday in the UK today, so everybody is out in their gardens cutting hedges, moving lawns, and all those other things that are unofficially on t...
Broken Shears
I woke a little before 8 this morning, and stared at the bedroom ceiling for a while before a switch of some kind flicked in my head. I hate that switch. Bef...
Little Or Nothing
After scraping myself out of bed a little after 9am this morning - perhaps the latest I have been up in many months - I busied myself with the usual round of...
Making Friends
It’s Friday night, I’m on my second glass of wine, and I have the prospect of a week off stretched ahead of me like a glorious savannah full of possibilities...
Soaked To The Skin
I was going to write a long, meandering, nerdy post about my writing process - about markdown formatting, and version control, and compiling blog posts into ...
Slowing Down
Two more days in the office, and then a week off. A week of working in the garden, tidying the hell hole of a house up, cleaning bathrooms, cutting trees dow...
Rabbit Holes
I have spent the greater part of this evening tinkering with a pretend computer that hasn’t existed for thirty years. That’s right - not even the real thing....
Sunday At Home
I’ve been home alone today for the most part - plodding on with the endless routine of chores and tasks that come with a family and a house. I was supposed t...
Love And Betrayal
How do I describe the events of yesterday ?
A Very Royal Wedding
While a great many people both in England, and around the world watched Harry and Meghan tie the knot in St. George’s Chapel, we stood on the touchline of a ...
How Is It Only Thursday
It’s just gone 9am, and I’m sitting at my desk in the office at work, still not really awake. I woke at 5 this morning, then fell back asleep for a couple of...
Perhaps Not The End
A few years ago I watched a wonderful movie called “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, about a young Indian man with a dream to run his own hotel. In the middl...
Persisting
For the past several weeks and months I have been perched atop a precarious knife edge - on the one hand deleting, cancelling, and purging huge swathes of my...
Everything Changes
After a day or two turning the idea over and over in my head, and an afternoon spent figuring out what needed to be done, I have migrated this blog over from...
Sunday 6Th May 2018
Yesterday (after going for a madcap ride in Dad’s new car - a Jaguar XF), I walked down to Talland with Laura, and then over to Polperro. We both got sunburn...
Saturday 5Th May 2018
Laura and I travelled down on the train yesterday - leaving Marlow just after 9 in the morning, changing at Maidenhead and Reading en-route. The train journe...
Defying Expectations
I asked a friend recently if they could recall any “sliding door” moments during their life - moments where a decision was made that took them in one directi...
Is This What The End Looks Like
Over the weekend I found myself repeatedly turning a thought over in my head. Why do I write a blog? What’s the point of it all? I suppose the seed of the th...
Staff Table At The Quiz Night
Last night I joined the staff table for a fund-raising quiz-night at the local infant school - the one my other half works at. I’ve been to countless similar...
Making Plans
It’s Saturday. The washing machine and tumble dryer are rumbling away in the background. I’ve just made lunch for everybody - I expect I’ll be washing up beh...
Tiredness Abounds
I’m not sure that I have a blog post in me tonight - and yet here I am, sitting in the junk room, tapping away at the keyboard. I’m grinning - remembering a ...
Work Work Work
I’m writing this from the junk room at home. I got back about an hour ago, and am still decompressing. My other half and the younger girls are at their dance...
Working And Writing
I realised today that the mountain I’m climbing at work is steeper than I thought. I’m tempted to dig in and work nights to get ahead of the game, but I’m no...
Nightmares
When I was young, I sometimes had a recurring nightmare about walking through the subway beneath the road behind our house. The subway lead to the nearest pl...
Strange Dreams
It’s rare that I remember dreams. I sometimes wonder if we only remember them if they happen just before we wake up - that’s what happened this morning. Of c...
Reaching Out
If you see a friend request on Facebook from me, I decided to give up on the whole ‘cut Facebook back to close family and friends’ thing, because I ended up ...
Headache From Hell
I left work early today, after fighting a headache that kept getting worse. It got to the point where I was squinting at the computer screen in front of me, ...
The Rugby Tournament
After scraping ourselves out of bed this morning, we all set about filling the car with boot-bags, mouth-guards, and collosal quantities of food before setti...
About Last Night
Last night we were invited to spend the evening having a barbecue with old friends. It was needed. If you’ve been reading these posts for the last few weeks,...
Barbecue Friends Beer
I have been invited to a barbecue this evening - hosted by a wonderful friend that lives across the way. I’ll stop on the way home to buy beer and wine. Afte...
One Hour
I’m forcing myself to take a break from work for an hour. An hour to empty my head into the keyboard. An hour away from all thoughts about programming, workf...
Blank
I’ve been sitting in front of the computer for the last hour, wondering what I might write about, and vanishing down any number of internet rabbit holes whil...
Tuesday
I had the best idea for a blog post earlier. Unfortunately all I remember about it now is that I had an idea. I have no idea what that idea was, or how inter...
Reconnecting
After surviving a fit of bravery at the weekend, and connecting Twitter, Instagram, WordPress, and Tumblr together, it occurred to me this evening that I sho...
The Pretty People
Instead of standing on the touchline of a football pitch for several hours earlier, I found myself stuck at home doing chores once again - filling the washin...
Almost The Weekend
It’s almost the weekend. I’m watching the last few minutes of Friday tick down. I need this weekend - but of course I’m not going to get this weekend. Far fr...
Hurtling
This week is flying by. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m continually busy, or because time has spontaneously shortened without anybody realising. I’ve worked...
Just A Few Words
For the last few weeks I have been working on a colossal project. I turn up at the office, sit at my desk, and work straight through until I get up to leave....
Surrounded By Idiots
I just watched the entire testimony between Mark Zuckerberg and a number of United States Senators in Washington live. Nearly six hours of it. I have some th...
Dark Skies
I got up from my office chair this afternoon, and realised I hadn’t got up since arriving in the office in the morning. I knew this because my legs didn’t se...
Differences Attract
It’s no secret that my favorite TV show of the last several years was ‘Community’ - a comedy about a group of misfits that end up at community college togeth...
Give And Take
This morning I gave my Chromebook to my other half, leaving me without a laptop. She had been soldiering on with a second-hand laptop from the place I work f...
One Foot In Front Of The Other
My entire life seems to be a continual treadmill at the moment. Get up, shower, go to work, stress out for several hours, go grocery shopping, come home, eat...
From A Distance
Making friends on the internet is a curious thing. While some of us are open books, posting our daily adventures for anybody to read, many are not. While som...
Eight Thousand Lines
I wrote code from the moment I sat down this morning, straight through until the moment I got up to come home. I stopped for a few minutes to make a coffee, ...
Bank Holiday Monday
Today is a bank holiday in the UK. I’ve been up since 8am, and haven’t really got anything done. Sure, I fed the animals, and let the chicken out (we’re look...
The Weekend
We invited the in-laws over for lunch today - Easter Sunday - which necessitated a frenzied cleaning of the house such has not been seen for quite some time....
Ready Player One
I finally got to the cinema yesterday to see Ready Player One, and came away not really disappointed, but not enthused either.
For A Friend
There is a laptop on the desk in the junk room - it’s been there since yesterday evening. It belongs to a teaching assistant at the school where my other hal...
Every Other Day
I seem to have fallen into a pattern of posting to the blog every other day. I’m not sure how it happened, but it does feel less forced. I really don’t lead ...
Distant Friends
I’m not entirely sure why, but I’m always surprised when anybody notices me - particularly if they have discovered me via this blog. I have been writing onli...
Something And Nothing
After a weekend filled with stress, arguments, standing on rugby pitch touchlines, school fundraisers, doing endless chores, and then being accused of doing ...
Back To Earth
After the somewhat epic journey home yesterday, and a pizza and movie night with the children (we watched ‘Justice League’), this morning has very much been ...
The One Where I Almost Missed My Flight
After waking up at 5am, 6am, and 7am this morning, I finally scraped myself out of the hotel bed, stumbled into the shower, and then set about folding clothe...
Last Night
I fly home tomorrow morning. I did a little work this evening, but nothing like the epic slog the last few evenings turned into. You don’t even want to see t...
2Am
I’m sitting in a king size bed, looking out over Frankfurt from the enormous window of my 15th storey hotel room window. The clock is ticking towards 2am. Af...
Tired
I’m wiped out. I scraped myself out of bed at 7am, arrived in the office ay 8:30am, and worked straight through until 5pm. The first two hours of day were st...
To Frankfurt Once More
It’s 9:27am, and I’m sitting in the middle of Terminal 2 at Heathrow airport, London. The taxi transfer arrived at our house precisely when it should this mo...
Snow Day
I woke at about 7am this morning, with a pounding headache. Downing several cans of craft cider the night before will do that to you if you’re not used to dr...
Saturday
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room at home, sheltering from the bitter cold outside. The central heating is on flat-out, the curtains are closed, and t...
Pretending To Be Busy
I finished writing technical documentation for the project I’m working on a little after 11am this morning, and have been scratching around for anything to d...
Other Peoples Lives
While walking back from an emergency grocery shopping trip late this evening, I spotted a cafe that opens late, filled with people laughing, smiling, relaxin...
Drifting
I’m sitting in the junk room at home, listening to the soundtrack from the movie “Hackers” (Voodoo People, by the Prodigy right now), typing this into GEdit ...
Tuesday
For no particular reason at all, I’m writing this post in a text editor within an Amiga emulator on the Raspberry Pi. Let me explain that a bit further - a v...
Decompressing
I don’t think “Monday from Hell” really covers it. Lets just say that when a teenager stops taking her anxiety medication, the wheels will eventually fall of...
Tinkering
It’s just gone 10pm on Sunday evening, and I’m in my usual bolt-hole - hiding out in the junk room, listening to music, and emptying my head into the keyboar...
Bingo
After spending the entire day walking back and forth from town, clearing up after people, re-filling the washing machine and tumble dryer, and putting things...
Amateur Dramatics
Please excuse me while I do a regulation “Thank f*ck it’s Friday” happy dance. Of course I’m not really doing a dance - I’m still sitting on my ever-so-sligh...
Relentless
This week seems to be going on indefinitely. I’m sure there’s an end to it somewhere, but I’m not entirely sure where that might be. It probably doesn’t help...
Elementary
I just finished installing “Elementary OS” on the old desktop computer at home - the one in the junk room that I tend to sit at while writing blog posts. On ...
Coming Home
After falling into bed a little after 10am last night, I woke with a start at 3am this morning. I’m not sure what woke me up, but I was unceremoniously yanke...
Another Train Another Hotel
Greetings from a hotel room several hundred miles from home. I’m in Leeds for the night, ahead of a day spent in quite the most imposing building I visit amo...
Terrifically Unfair
So much has happened in the last 18 hours. I’m having trouble processing it - struggling to arrange it all into a coherent story. Perhaps I’ll start at the b...
45Th Lap
It’s official - I have now been standing, sitting, or lying down on this ball of mud, rock, and water for 45 laps of the sun. 45 is kind of a nothing age, is...
Snow Day
The local schools closed one-by-one yesterday evening. The children are all home today - as am I. My other half hasn’t been so lucky - she has walked to work...
Not Leaving The House
I’m “working” from home today. While sitting in the junk room, surrounded by my work laptop and phone, a cup of tea, the bullet journal, and the various bits...
Last Day Of February
Where on earth is this year going? While it feels like I only just returned to the office after Christmas, somehow it’s already the end of February. Does lif...
Coming Home
I came home from work mid-morning. I’ve most probably picked a virus up of the kids. While I don’t feel that dreadful, it was causing me to have trouble conc...
Why Are Mondays So Awful
I woke at 5:30am this morning. I’m not entirely sure how or why. I was suddenly wide awake, checking the radio alarm clock, reading email, and wondering abou...
A Wanderer Returns
You know the one where you start the year disconnecting yourself from social media, blogging, instant messaging, and everything else - swearing that you’re d...
Where Has The Weekend Gone
How do you go about writing a blog post when utter mayhem surrounds you ? While writing this Miss 12 is playing “Bomberman” next to me at full volume, the ra...
Everything Changes
It’s all over again. Miss 17 called an end to the relationship that has caused her so much frustration and heartache in recent weeks. We’re trying not to say...
Avoidance
I’m sitting at my desk at work, struggling to find the enthusiasm to drag the thing I’m working on over the finish line. There isn’t a finish line as such th...
Fallout
While preparing for dinner yesterday evening, we received a text message from our eldest daughter, asking if it would be alright to stay at her friends house...
Working From Home
Today has been a day to forget so far.
Tiredness Growing Up And Growing Old
I nearly fainted this afternoon. I had been working flat out all day on a technical problem. I didn’t get up from my desk from the moment I arrived in the mo...
Scrivener And Dropbox
Sunday has been remarkably quiet so far. The girls went to rugby practice first thing while I got on with chores around the house. They arrived home early th...
Never Say Never
At the beginning of the year I walked away from much of my “presence” on social media. For several years I had been posting into Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, I...
Saturday
The radio alarm clock went off at 7am this morning. On a Saturday. I woke up, switched the radio off, and promptly fell back asleep, waking up again at 9am.
Audibly Exhaling
It’s late on Friday evening, and I’m racing to write a blog post before Friday becomes Saturday. It’s not so much a case of wondering where the evening went,...
Another Mass Shooting
I’ve been reading various news stories today, following the mass shooting in Florida that happened yesterday. In the hours afterwards, all the usual suspects...
Almost Ignoring Valentines Day
If the marketing people would have you believe it, millions of people will be making all sorts of extra effort to woo, appease, or apologise to their existin...
Here And There
I missed another day on the blog. You might think I would therefore have an entire extra day of adventures to impart, but sadly not. Nothing I want to share ...
Missing
Yesterday morning our eldest daughter got herself up, dressed, washed, brushed her hair, then announced that she was going into town. We raised eyebrows at e...
Saturday Afternoon
It’s heading towards 3pm on Saturday afternoon, and I’m holed up in the junk room, listening to Spotify, writing this while the rain falls outside. In the sp...
Conspiracy Theory
If I didn’t know better, I would say the old desktop computer in the study has got it in for me tonight. In the last ten minutes it has crashed twice. Perhap...
Pretend Computers And Holidays
I suppose technically this is being written on Friday morning. I thought I should write something, given that I didn’t post anything yesterday - breaking a s...
The Forgettable Day
It all started at breakfast time this morning. After sliding out of bed, waking the children up, having a shower, brushing my teeth, getting dressed, feeding...
Sleep And Chocolate
I have nothing earth shattering to report. I’m not going to let that stop me filling a blog post with very little though. If nothing else, writing this post ...
Sunday Rugby And The Superbowl
It’s Sunday evening, dinner is busy cooking, the clothes are mostly washed, two of the children are watching TV in their rooms after a day on the rugby field...
Beans And Cheese On Toast
After the relentless questioning from Miss 12 grew almost continuous, I caved and made lunch for everybody - well, everybody except my other half who has gon...
Relatively Unscathed
This week has been something like a firework - starting off burning fiercely, then finally letting go with an explosion, leaving a debris field full of smoki...
February Begins
How is it the beginning of February already? Where did January go? If I were to believe the various posts I have seen while dipping my toes into the acid lad...
Backing Up The Known Universe
After completing the epic Tuesday night slog yesterday evening (meet Miss 17, go for coffee, buy groceries, pick up Miss 13, change her into football kit, dr...
The Struggle Is Real
You know the whole “slash and burn” drive I’ve been on just recently? I have expanded it this morning to include the backup of my blog, and all of my work no...
Tour Of Destruction
Today started kicking my butt as soon as I arrived in the office this morning. It then kept kicking my butt throughout the day. I’m still standing though, wh...
Not Going Out
It’s heading towards lunchtime on Sunday. There are some bagels with my name on them on the kitchen counter, waiting for me to fill them with cheese and what...
Fishing For Friends
Sometimes I spend an hour randomly following links from blogs to comments, and on to further blogs - reading, commenting, and reminding myself what it is to ...
Interactive Fiction
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.
Standing Behind Mary Berry
On our way home from parents evening at our youngest’s school yesterday evening, the clock struck “can’t be bothered to cook anything” o’clock, so we stopped...
Home Alone
It’s heading towards midnight, the children are fast asleep in bed, and I’m sitting alone in the study typing up a blog post on the old desktop PC. I can hea...
Withdrawing
I walked away from Tumblr yesterday. Perhaps permanently this time. After posting to a Tumblr account more or less consistently since the platform launched b...
Returning To The Bullet Journal
Throughout the last few months of last year I tried out using a Bullet Journal for day-to-day tasks, notes, and so on. By the end of the year I convinced mys...
A Day To Forget
The day started so well. Up early, showered, dressed, breakfast with the children, coffee. A few moments after our eldest left for college the wheels started...
Rabbit Holes
Today feels like it has slipped through my fingers. I rolled out of bed a minute or so after the radio alarm clock erupted into life at 7am, and stomped off ...
The Invention Of Lying
After playing a spirited game of “Settlers of Catan” with the children last night, I sat down late in the evening with my other half and said “shall we watch...
Disconnecting
I’m not sure when this feeling started - maybe a few days ago, or a few weeks, or even a few months ago. It feels like I’m slowly disconnecting from the soci...
Saturday
The day began at 7am when the radio alarm clock burst into life, filling the bedroom with the local radio station. Nobody actually staffs the radio station a...
Working From Home
After a mammoth session recording expenses for this week’s adventures in Germany, I returned home after lunch to keep Miss 17 company. Her teenage friends se...
Departure
This is a story about cost cutting gone mad. I arrived at Frankfurt Airport this morning, expecting to follow the usual routine of baggage check-in, and secu...
The Early Bird Catches The Bacon
I’ve become quite the expert - at this hotel at least - at making bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast. My creations are nowhere near as neat and tidy as t...
Preparing For Departure
My work in Germany has come to an end - for now. The only clothes left out in the hotel room are clean clothes for the morning. After breakfast in the hotel ...
To The Apotheker
I learned something new this evening. After work I had a splitting headache, so thought “it’s fine - I’ll buy something to eat from the supermarket, and have...
Headaches And Early Starts
I’m supposed to be in the office at 8:30 this morning - not a huge problem, seeing as the hotel is directly across the road from the office. This is why I li...
Good Morning From Heathrow Airport
It’s heading towards 10am - I arrived at the airport a little before 8:30am and strolled straight through security. I’m getting too good at it - while removi...
Arrival
The flight from Heathrow to Frankfurt was remarkably routine. Although officially recorded as “delayed”, the flight crew did everything in their power to rus...
Welcome To The Jungle
We took the newly crowned (as of this morning) Miss 14 out to the cinema last night to watch “Jumanji : Welcome to the Jungle”. She had no clue the tickets w...
Bags Are Packed
A variety of clothes have been washed, ironed, folded, and packed. My work backpack has been emptied of it’s usual ephemera, and re-filled with the bare esse...
A First Job Interview For Miss 17
I walked into town with our eldest this morning - moral support for her first job interview - at a local coffee shop. I coached her with the kinds of questio...
Procrastinating Famously
I’m busy clearing the decks at work this morning. I travel to Germany first thing on Monday, so there’s not much point getting involved in doing anything of ...
Running Late
Before arriving in the office this morning I paid a visit to the local barbers, and sat quietly while a nice lady called Mary, from Tipperary in Ireland cut ...
Returning To Frankfurt Again
A taxi will arrive at my house early on Monday morning, and take me to Heathrow Airport, just outside London. I’m returning to Frankfurt in Germany once more...
One Week Into The Nokia 3310 Experiment
It is now a week since the Nokia 3310 arrived, and I performed a factory reset on my previous phone (a rather lovely Honor 8 that now resides in my other hal...
Frozen
No, this post isn’t about two little girls growing up in a far away land where one has magical powers, the other falls in love with a dastardly bastard, and ...
Back To The Future
Friday night has somehow become “Pizza Night” in our house - a lazy reward of sorts for making it to the end of the week. It started some time ago, when some...
Meetings Cycling Blogging And Nothing
I survived my first day back in the office! The expected meeting to plan out the next year happened, and thankfully didn’t really decide anything beyond anot...
Everything And Nothing
I’m sitting at the desk in my office, kicking around various bits and pieces - researching cloud stuff, brainstorming, and talking with the other developers ...
Cycling To Work
I cycled to work today, and tried out the camera. It really didn’t help that the sky fell on my head for the entire journey, covering the camera in water and...
Ends And Beginnings
I’m sitting at the desk in the junk room at home, writing this on the old desktop PC. Sia is filling the room with “Chandelier” via the Fire TV wired up to t...
Slowly And Quietly
I don’t go back to work until Thursday, and am trying to keep well away from my work phone, which sits in the pocket of my backpack, just across the room fro...
2017
Happy New Year
Most people will be waking up this morning to a brand new year. I on the other hand never really went to bed. I can now proudly state that I have passed the ...
Reflection And Goals
I’ve never quite understood the mania that some people experience at the end of each year - setting out either a list of the things they achieved over the pa...
Photography
Giving up the smartphone may end up being a blessing in disguise - because I’ve become incredibly lazy over the last few years - just allowing Google to uplo...
Waiting For Nothing
While walking between the lounge and kitchen this morning, wondering if to empty the washing machine next, or empty the dishwasher, there was a thump thump t...
The One Where I Scrapped The Bullet Journal And Returned To A Filofax
We all knew this was going to happen, didn’t we.
Slowing Everything Down
While browsing Twitter late last night I happened upon an acquaintance wondering how some people generate so many comments on their blogs, and scrolled throu...
Being Noticed
I’ve never really felt like I “fitted in” anywhere. Throughout college I was not one of the popular crowd that hung out together, and through my twenty-somet...
Christmas
It is late afternoon on Boxing Day, and the children are still playing a marathon board game called “The Battle for Hogwarts” in the lounge with my other hal...
Continuing A Tradition
Our youngest just received a phonecall from Santa en-route. He got our postcode wrong. We heard the shouted conversation on the upstairs landing, and the thu...
Christmas Shopping Complete
Today was really just about buying bits and pieces that were not on lists. A family board game to play, stocking fillers, and so on. I had planned on going o...
War Horse
This afternoon we went on our annual “surprise” family Christmas outing, and managed to keep a lid on it right up until the moment we arrived at the theatre ...
Finished For Christmas
At 3pm this afternoon I finished for Christmas. I go back on the 4th January. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet - it won’t until we get Christmas morning ...
The Last Jedi
I just got home from the cinema. I’m happy, sad, excited, weary, elated, and torn - all at the same time. So many emotions.
Frankfurt
In spring this year I was assigned to a project that involved travelling to Frankfurt in Germany to spend several days on a client site doing “proof of conce...
Turning A Corner
Final conference call done. Final expense claim filed. It feels like I’m lifting rocks from an imaginary back-pack and casting them aside, one at a time. I h...
First World Problems
Given all the things going on in the world, it often feels ridiculous to complain about the situations we find ourselves in. We bottle up our stresses, our c...
Counting Down The Days
Apart from a conference call that will determine much of the year ahead for me, I have little to do this week at work. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going t...
Starting Early
The alarm clock was programmed for 6am this morning. I woke at 5:50am after a pretty spectacular dream about some sort of school reunion, and watched the las...
Nothing To Report
It’s been a very quiet weekend from my point of view. In the past I’ve managed to fashion a blog post out of little or nothing, but today I just don’t seem t...
Heard While Christmas Shopping
In-between chores, and delivering children to birthday parties, we managed to get some Christmas shopping done today. While browsing the books in our local b...
The Night Before
Last night I was invited out to the local brewery, which holds “members nights” every so often - for paid members to visit (along with two guests per member)...
The Morning After
When the alarm clock ticked over at 7am and filled the bedroom with the local radio station, I woke with a start and rolled upright in bed. It turns out movi...
New Phone Ordered
I ordered a new mobile phone this morning - it will arrive in the post tomorrow. It’s the 2017 version of the cheapest handset Nokia make. Before you think “...
Contemplating Armageddon
I thought about retreating from the internet today. I’ve done it before. I thought about tearing down this cardboard construction of blog posts, photos, stat...
Two Glasses Of Wine
For the last year or so, Tuesday nights have seen me break all manner of pretend fitness app step records, trudging around town to pick children up from one ...
Working From Home
Following the blanket of snow that fell on the surrounding area throughout yesterday, most of the local schools announced their closure, along with the offic...
The Beginning Or The End
This week Deep Mind - the Google team behind the “Alpha Zero” artificial intelligence project - tried out the game of chess on the system.
Snowing On Sunday
After spending the greater part of last night stood in a good friend’s kitchen drinking beer and telling stories, we arrived home a little before midnight, a...
Slow Start Saturday
The radio alarm clock exploded into life at 7am, filling the bedroom with the local radio station, playing pre-recorded news from the big networks. I rolled ...
The One Where I Deactivated Instagram
I suppose this has been coming for quite some time. While waiting for a virtual server to spin up at work this morning, I logged into Instagram (where I had ...
Late Night Shopping
I took the photo accompanying this post while wandering back towards home this evening - after most of the streets had already emptied of the thousands that ...
Channeling Flynn
I spent the entire day buried in programming again. Another thousand lines of code, some user interface design, and some workflow wrangling. Don’t ask what I...
One Thousand Lines
Today I wrote over a thousand lines of programming. Tomorrow morning I’ll try executing them, and hide behind something sturdy while they spew error messages...
Through My Eyes
I started uploading photos to Flickr earlier today. Quite when I’ll get around to properly labelling, tagging, and curating them is something of a mystery at...
The Arrival Of Poppy The Hamster
I thought I was going to be standing on the touchline of a rugby pitch at 10am this morning. After sliding out of bed a little after 8am, and finding my way ...
Adding Photography To The Mix
Many years ago - before the advent of Instagram - I had a Flickr account. Thinking about it, I had a Flickr account before Flickr was owned by Yahoo - a lon...
Saturday Happened
I suppose, strictly speaking, Saturday isn’t over yet. Having cleared the fridge ready for groceries to arrive (other half is out shopping right now), helped...
Reaching Out
I signed up for a Snapchat account yesterday. My third of the last few years. When Snapchat first appeared I didn’t have a good enough phone to run it, so ca...
Procrastinating Famously
To be perfectly honest, I’m not getting an awful lot done today. It comes to something when the only accomplishment you can really think of for the morning h...
Parachuted In Again
I pulled somebody else’s code to pieces today, in search of an oversight that a client is calling a bug. It took half the day to build a test environment, an...
Rebuilding Miss 17
Last night was a perfect example of the challenges faced by two parents attempting to parent three children. The eldest - often thought of as the most level ...
Everything Changes
David Karp is leaving Tumblr. It feels strange, finally seeing the various valley blogs breathlessly posting the news out to the internet - describing how he...
Coming Home Early
I came home from work early today. It turns out spending the whole of Saturday with somebody fighting a terrible cold pretty successfully transfers the germs...
Peace And Quiet
My younger daughters have walked into town on some sort of secret mission, my other half has gone to visit her mother, and our eldest daughter is holed up in...
Rice Cakes Manga Anime And Cosplay At Hyperjapan
After sliding out of bed at 6am this morning, jumping in the shower, having shave, and throwing on clothes prepared last night, I knocked on Miss 17’s bedroo...
New Brakes New Lights New Haircut
A few minutes before leaving the house this morning the telephone rang. My other half.
The Early Train To London
It’s 6:31am, and I’m sitting on the train to London Paddington railway station. One of the advantages of travelling so early is the train is almost empty. I’...
Happy Thanksgiving
Just a quick post to wish all I know around the world that are celebrating thanksgiving all the best. We don’t celebrate it on this side of the world, but I ...
Falling Asleep On The Train
I fell asleep on the way home. More than once. I’m pretty sure that I was only asleep for a few moments, but you never really know, do you. For all I know it...
Here There And Everywhere
It’s Tuesday evening, just gone 9pm, and I’ve just sat down. I left work a little after five, and have spent the intervening four hours walking back and fort...
Contemplating A Second Blog
I’ve been sitting around a conference room table in a hotel all day with co-workers, taking turns to talk about the various technologies we find ourselves us...
Its A Dangerous Business
I’ve just re-written the title of this blog post three times. It started out as “Reflections on a a Few Weeks of Trying Harder”, and then “Expending Effort”,...
Living On The Edge
You might say the title of this post is every so slightly sarcastic. We just spent the greater part of the evening sitting in the gymnasium of a school playi...
The Sweet Spot
Following my self imposed imprisonment construction of a catch-net for Miss 17 this evening instead of sitting in a rugby stadium with the rest of my family ...
Not Going Out
I had tickets to the England Ladies rugby game against Canada this evening. I left work early so we could set off in time to get there and find our seats in ...
Theres Always Something
This morning was… interesting. By “interesting”, I probably mean lots of other words, but I’m unsure if I should write them down or not. Some of them will be...
Crossing The Streams
No, I haven’t built a working prototype of the “Proton Pack” from the movie Ghostbusters, and no I’m not doing battle with a giant version of the Staypuft Ma...
Ashes To Ashes
Today has been a day for reflection. A day to get through. A difficult day. Today an old friend was buried.
A Few Words For A Departed Friend
You might recall that during my last visit to Germany I received word about an old friend and co-worker that was killed in a motorcycle accident. I’m attendi...
Mr Cranky Pants Goes On Tour
My body performed it’s usual magic trick of waking up a few moments before the pre-programmed alarm clock this morning. I silently switched it off, and crept...
Tilting At Blogging Windmills
I bought a magazine yesterday morning - a magazine all about blogging. Within it’s pages there are interviews with “bloggers of note”, lots of explanatory ar...
Recreate A Single Day
Somehow I have made it to day fourteen of the WordPress Blogging University “Every Day Inspiration” series of daily prompts. Yes, I know I haven’t doneevery ...
Blogosphere Magazine
While escaping from the house this morning on a mission to buy groceries, I happened upon a magazine I first saw a little over a year ago, called “Blogospher...
A Weekend Off
Well this is unexpected. No scheduled football match for Miss 13, rugby cancelled due to lack of numbers, and football called off for Miss 12 due to an unpla...
Unexpected Popularity
The strangest thing has been happening. Maybe not strange, but certainly unexpected. People have been reading my blog posts. Lots of people. Well, a few. Mor...
If We Were Meeting For Coffee Right Now
Although I seem to have missed a few of the WordPress Blogging University “Every Day Inspiration” prompts over the last few days, I am doing them as and when...
A Few Words This Morning
Given that I will be heading south on a succession of trains this evening, I’m taking the chance to write a few words now - at 7:45am.
Writing And Not Writing
Today’s WordPress Blogging University writing exercise is asking me to consider what I might write if I had more time to write:
Hotel Life
It’s 7:50am, and I’m back from the hotel restaurant after attempting to eat a cooked breakfast big enough to feed most entire families. I don’t usually bothe...
Heading Back To Yorkshire
My backpack and suitcase are packed, my personal phone, work phone, and tablet are charged, and I’m debating on polishing my walking boots, rather than wear ...
An Update On The Bullet Journal
For the past few months I have been trying out a “Bullet Journal”. Rather than re-purpose my pre-existing Moleskine notebook, I went out and bought an offici...
Let Social Media Inspire You
Today’s writing prompt for the WordPress Blogging University “Every Day Inspiration” challenge is to “let social media inspire you” - to go look at social me...
Where Do You Write
Today’s writing prompt from the WordPress Blogging University “Every Day Inspiration” course asks me to describe the place I write. I think I’ve described th...
The Colour Of Magic
Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong. The above ...
The One Where I Met Myself
While getting on with my work this morning - yes, it happens sometimes - I noticed a raft of emails arriving in Google Mail, and curiosity got the better of ...
Replying To The Past
I was reminded by a wonderful friend this morning that back in 2007 I wrote a post on the blog titled “A Letter to my Future Self [https://strangecodex.wordp...
A Story In A Single Image
The Blogging University “Everyday Inspiration” prompt for today is “A Story in a Single Image” - encouraging you to look at a selection of photos accompanyin...
Regret
For the better part of 2007 and 2008 I commuted into London each day - leaving the house at 6:45am each morning, and returning at 7pm each evening. The door-...
Trick Or Treat
While cycling home from work this evening, I couldn’t help but smile at the young children out with their parents - variously dressed as Witches, Faeries, Ba...
Lets Write A List
Today’s writing exercise from the totally fabricated faculty of Blogging University is a list. It could be any list, but I’m guessing a list of goals, inspir...
Late Night Gibberish
I’m sitting on a chair in the corner of my eldest daughter’s bedroom at half-past midnight. We both have Chromebooks propped on our laps, and we’re both writ...
I Write Because
I’m doing well this week. I signed up for one of the WordPress University [https://dailypost.wordpress.com/blogging-university/] courses yesterday, and then ...
Unwarranted Anxiety
I am going on-site with a new client on Wednesday. I discovered this via a random email last Friday. You might think “So what? you travel all the time with w...
Adrift On The Internet
Over the last few months I have continued to post almost every day, tried to read those that I follow, and kept putting one foot in front of the other - it’s...
Retro Video Games First Posts And Stranger Things
After escorting Miss 17 to a famous fashion retail establishment this afternoon, I left her to peruse their wares and crossed the road to see what the second...
2Am Netflix Marathons Ftw
I sat up with our eldest daughter last night watching back to back episodes of “Stranger Things” on Netflix. We watched the first four episodes of season 2 w...
Stranger Things And Rebuilding Teenagers
Tonight is pizza night, and Stranger Things 2 has been released on Netflix. That solves what I’ll be watching throughout the weekend. I may stop on my way ho...
Third And Final Day
Here I am again, sitting in the junk room at home, emptying my head into the keyboard. I have no adventures to relate as such - other than wanting to kill ne...
Slowing Everything Down
It’s my second day off work, and the world finally seems to be slowing down. Yesterday was spent washing and drying clothes, fetching children from holiday a...
Tiny Letters
I’m thinking about giving”Tiny Letter” a try. It’s owned by MailChimp, and is provided as a free service for individuals - it lets people subscribe to you, a...
The First Of Three Days
I have three days off work, starting today. I didn’t even wake up until 8:30am. How does that work? Usually I’m awake and up at 7am. Maybe I need to add one ...
Turning The Pedals
Cycling to work this morning seemed like hard work. It’s amazing how sitting in a hotel for a week can take the formerly super-human strength from your legs ...
Nerding Out
Would you like to know why I didn’t write a blog post yesterday? Would youreally like to know why? Then I shall begin.I spent several hours yesterday migrat...
Running On Empty
I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to make it through this blog post. I’m home, I’m sitting at the desk in the junk room, and I’m typing. It’s been a long d...
Final Night In Frankfurt
I fly home tomorrow morning.
Oreillys
After work this evening I changed from the vaguely smart shirt and trousers I wear every day (clean shirt each day, obviously), into the vaguely less smart j...
The End Of The Beginning
I woke several times during the early hours of the morning and checked my phone for messages in the aftermath of yesterday’s awful news. I buried my head in ...
Watching The Clock
When I woke at 6am this morning, I instinctively checked my phone for messages, and discovered my flight to Germany had been cancelled. Ten minutes later, wh...
Dealing With Bad News
I just discovered a guy I worked with for several years was killed in a road traffic accident on Sunday morning. His wife is 7 months pregnant. They were goo...
Chocolate Coated Cardboard
It’s 8pm, and I’m sitting in a hotel less than 100 yards from the place I will be working tomorrow, munching on chocolate coated cardboard. At least I think ...
Sunday Rugby And Silently Stressing Out
Today will be spent standing at the touchline of rugby pitches - watching Miss 12 and Miss 13 diving around in the mud, shouting “DEFENSIVE LINE!” like littl...
I Should Be Asleep
I have a taxi to the airport arriving early tomorrow morning. At the time of writing it’s ten minutes until midnight, and yet here I am, still up. I thought ...
Round And Round
While writing this post, the washing machine and tumble dryer are rumbling away in the background, I’m half listening to an old playlist on the ancient iMac ...
Returning To Frankfurt
I’m clearing the decks today - early on Monday morning I’ll be making my way to the railway station, then on to the airport, and to Frankfurt in Germany once...
Nablopomo And Lisa
One of the great benefits of having taken part in this curious online world for so long, is you know the back-story behind things. As many of you will know, ...
Things That Go Bump In The Night
On Tuesday nights one of our children has a dance class, while another goes to football training. I get home from work, eat whatever is available at quite so...
Working From Home Again
I’m sitting in the study at home once again, trying to concentrate on work, but being stopped by the plumber every few minutes to relate the latest bad news ...
The One Where We Gave The Children Their Own Bank Cards
Two mysterious envelopes arrived in the post this afternoon, addressed to my younger daughters. After spotting the postal return addresses on them, I almost ...
Everything Changes
After trying out Medium (the darling of the web publishing hipster crowd) for a few days, and trying to like it, I’ve admitted defeat, returned to WordPress ...
Dark Skies Roast Dinner And Cancellations
The nights are starting to draw in. While cycling home from work this evening a pervasive blanket of darkness seemed to be readying it’s fall upon the world....
Behold
I have decided on a new name for this blog (and theTumblr [https://strangecodex.tumblr.com/]account, because I’m a bit insane like that). It only took ooh fo...
All Good Things
I’m sitting in the study at home while a dehumidifier rumbles away in the remains of the bathroom upstairs. I very nearly went into the office today (the plu...
Working From Home
I am working from home this week. I agreed it with myself yesterday after discovering my other half had booked a plumber to come and rip the upstairs bathroo...
Thirty Days Until Nanowrimo
For the first time in recent memory, I have no plans today. No obligations. No expectations. Of course I have still filled the washing machine and dryer, sta...
Resurrecting The Imac
While my other half was standing at the side of a rugby pitch in the middle of nowhere this afternoon I took it upon myself to tidy up the junk room at home.
Old Friends
After getting the usual Saturday morning madness of standing on the touchline of football matches out of the way, and tipping colossal quantities of noxious ...
Better Off Dead
Our middle girl screamed a great many nasty things at us this morning. She claimed she was sick, and couldn’t possibly go to school. We countered that if she...
Prodictivity App Madness
After yesterday’s carpet-bombing of the various social platforms on the internet, I thought I might move on to ripping productivity apps a new one today. It’...
Approaching Overload
Do you ever feel the online world is becoming overloaded? Thoughts have been rattling around my admittedly tiny little brain for the last few months - that t...
Running Around In Circles
Today began with a late start - leaving the house in time to arrive at the local hair cutting establishment just as they opened for the day. I chose the one ...
Persisting With The Bullet Journal
It’s been a few weeks since starting out on the Bullet Journal adventure, so I thought it might be worth recording a few thoughts.
Sunday Evening Book Report
The clock is ticking inexorably towards the end of Sunday evening, and my mind is trying to avoid thinking about work tomorrow. Something didn’t work as well...
Quiet Insanity Rules
I rescued my old netbook computer from almost certain doom earlier in the week - it had been sitting on the corner of a counter in the kitchen along with a f...
Something Wicked This Way Comes
I suppose technically it’s already Saturday morning, but I’m writing this before falling into bed on Friday night, so I’m classing it as Friday still.
Searching For A Reason
I have found myself thinking about “the point of things” recently. I’m not sure what brought it on.
Lack Of Belief
A friend challenged my apparent lack of faith earlier this evening, causing me to really think about my opposition to “faith”. It’s worth pointing out that I...
Rearranging All The Things
After an extended game of e-mail ping-pong between three people, one of whom’s only function seemed to be the person that talks to the ship’s computer and re...
Decompressing
Tonight you find me sitting in the dark of the junk room, listening to the “Favourite Coffeehouse” playlist on Spotify, with an incense stick burning on the ...
Seventeen
She was always the least sure of herself, the one who worried the most - the one that watched others from a distance. Now she is seventeen, and I’m wondering...
Resurrection
I deactivated my Tumblr account a few weeks ago, and then posted on Facebook that I had done so, because I didn’t want to lose touch with anybody. A friend m...
Resurfacing
I re-installed Tumblr on my mobile phone last night. I’m still not sure if it was a wise thing to do or not, or if I will use it much. After deactivating my ...
Home
It’s Saturday morning, and I’m finally home. The washing machine and tumble dryer are rumbling away in the background, the kids are out at football matches a...
The Road Less Travelled
It’s Thursday evening. I fly home in the morning. I’m sitting in my hotel room once again, listening to the rain pitter patter on the window, and figuring ou...
Wednesday In Frankfurt
This morning began with the wail of a fire alarm in the hotel at 6am. Given that I only fell asleep at 2am following a snap decision to listen to “Chess in C...
Tuesday Morning In Frankfurt
Written at 9am in the morning while perched at a coffee shop table among the skyscrapers of central Frankfurt, and posted at 8pm the same evening while sitti...
From London To Frankfurt
It’s been a long day. A very long day. The alarm didn’t burst into life at 5am, because I woke at 4am, and didn’t really fall asleep again. I had fragments o...
Sunday Morning And Virtual Shenanigans
It’s a fairly normal Sunday morning - the younger children have gone to rugby training, the washing machine is on, clothes are already hanging on the line, p...
Returning To Frankfurt
I’m winding things down at work today, ahead of travelling to Frankfurt in Germany next week. The flight is booked, the hotel is booked - I just need to turn...
Saying Goodbye To The Netbook
This evening I erased the hard hard-drive on the old netbook computer that’s been kicking around the house for the last few years, and gave it to my other ha...
Adventures In Babysitting
In the grand tradition of discovering movies thirty years after everybody else, I finally sat and watched “Adventures in Babysitting” this evening with Miss ...
Walking Away Again
I deactivated my Tumblr account last night. I dread to think how many times I have re-joined Tumblr over the last three, four, or five years. Every time I wa...
Has Anybody Seen My Hangover
We were invited out to a 50th birthday party last night, hosted at the local rowing club on the river - the same rowing club where you might typically have f...
The Weekend Begins
After much thought and deliberation last night - you know - a few seconds worth - I have decided to stop writing draft blog posts in a text editor and storin...
September Really
I’m working from home today. This really means I’m answering emails, carrying on the research I was doing yesterday, running back and forth between the washi...
The Slippery Virtual Slope
During a break from the regularly scheduled mayhem at work this morning I ran the “Second Life” client software on my work laptop, wondering if it still work...
Getting Over Myself
I woke with a start at 6am this morning - from an apparently thrilling dream that I cannot remember. While contemplating the bedroom ceiling, and watching a ...
Bank Holiday Monday
I got up a little over an hour ago. After heading to the shower, brushing my teeth, and getting dressed, I wandered into the lounge and discovered the younge...
Weird Dreams Gameshows And The Hogwarts Express
After watching the boxing match between Connor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather at 5am this morning, I looked at the clock, and decided to go back to bed for a ...
Saturday Morning
After scraping myself out of bed this morning, jumping in the shower (not literally), having a shave to reverse the very impressive neanderthal impersonation...
Mcgregor Vs Mayweather
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room at home, debating with myself it it’s worth staying up to watch the fight between Connor McGregor, and Floyd Mayweat...
When Nothing Is Something
I have nothing to write about today, so will prove that nothing is something by writing this. Tada!
Nothing Of Consequence To Report
I haven’t really stopped all day. I planned to - I planned to give myself an hour at lunchtime to write some thoughts into the blog, but then one thing after...
Fighting Fires And Making Plans
Today has been interesting. Of course I don’t really mean interesting - I mean tiring, frustrating, irritating, and all those other words. You don’t really w...
Returning To Germany
While headbutting my desk spectacularly this afternoon after discovering yet another bug in a major software product sold by the biggest operating system man...
Back To Work
I think it’s fair to say I’ve been dreading returning to work - for the last two weeks I’ve been burying my head in the sand. After wading through the worst ...
Washington Square Park
While skimming updates posted to the social internet by far flung friends earlier this evening, I got sucked into reading a post recalling somebody’s formati...
Swimming On Sunday Morning
A little after waking up this morning a little voice called from the children’s rooms. I grinned at my other half, and predicted the next sentence.
Saturday Morning
It’s heading towards 9:30am on Saturday morning. The washing machine and tumble dryer are rumbling away in the background, the dishwasher has been emptied, t...
Theme Park
Today marked the last “day off work” of my staycation. We decided earlier in the week to gather all of our various coupons together, and spend the day at “Th...
Running Out Of Days
It’s Thursday morning, and the days of my “stay-cation” are slowly ebbing away. Just today, tomorrow, and the weekend left. After that I will be back to the ...
Mobile Phone Madness
While sitting in Starbucks with Miss 16 this morning, taking the regulation photograph of my coffee cup that all people with Instagram accounts are required ...
Refusing To Play The Game
I have been writing a personal blog, and publishing it to the internet for somewhere in the region of fifteen years now. Throughout that time I have never “p...
Victoria And Albert
The alarm on my mobile phone ripped into life at 6am this morning, and woke me with a start. I was in the middle of an intense dream about something or other...
The Bullet Journal
At the start of this year I gave serious consideration to ditching the Filofax I have been carrying around for the better part of the last decade, and using ...
Unblogging
If you’re doing a double take, and wondering where you’ve seen this post before, you might recall that I posted it back in February 2014. It’s in the archive...
Birthdays Friends Beer And Video Games
I’m amazed I don’t have a hangover this morning. I visited a friend last night to help celebrate his birthday - he had organised a “boy’s night”, complete wi...
The Junk Room
This morning I took it upon myself to clear up the “junk room”. We are fortunate enough in our ramshackle house to have a room that isn’t really used for any...
A Nice Day For A Walk
For the first few days of our self-imposed “staycation”, we have been knocking around the house, or wandering into town for one thing or another. Today we de...
Beer Music And Rain
Yesterday evening I was invited out to the “members evening” at the local brewery. If you become a member of the brewery - which costs an annual amount - you...
Haircuts Bowling And Bad Movies
While the other occupants of the house sat around sipping tea and watching breakfast television shows this morning, I jumped in the shower, had a shave, got ...
Putting Pen To Paper
Over the last ten years I have emptied my head from time to time into the pages of a paper notebook. I remember buying the first one - a Moleskine, because t...
Achieving Nothing
In many ways today was the first day of my vacation. The first day when I wasn’t racing through chores in the usual breakneck effort to achieve something app...
Unexpected Compliments
While catching up with a distant friend on Friday, I got told that my blog was “GREAT”. I of course questioned what she had been drinking or smoking, and imm...
Two Weeks Off
Watching the clock tick down this afternoon at work was interminable. It reminded of countless begging sessions with grandparents when I was little, when the...
Counting Down The Hours
I have a little over seven hours left in the office tomorrow before two weeks vacation. To say I’m looking forward to it would be a colossal understatement. ...
Starting Over
Over the last few months I experimented with writing under an assumed name - not for the first time. While it was fun to contemplate the idea of writing abou...
Street Party
We live in the corner of a green, which is surrounded by houses filled with many families we have never met. That all changed today after a number of the loc...
Autopilot
Do you ever have moments, hours, or even entire days when you feel like you have been running on autopilot? I do. Maybe not entirely offline, but sometimes i...
Powered By Wine
It’s heading towards 10pm, and I have acheived very little this evening other than eat a curry, an entire family bag of peanut M&Ms, and drink half a bot...
Hours And Hours
A support call came in late yesterday - reporting that something didn’t appear to be working correctly on a client site. It got assigned to me. Everything ge...
Tuesday Evening
The clock is ticking towards 9pm, and I have done nothing all evening. Actually, that’s not entirely true. After returning from work I hung a load of washing...
Falling Down
No, this post is not going to be about the Michael Douglas movie from the 1990s where an average guy goes on the rampage and holds up a fast food restaurant ...
Letting Go Of Things
It struck me recently that I’m surrounded by a world of things I don’t really need. Miscellaneous gadgets, books, pens, pencils, computers, tablets, phones, ...
Alone For The Week
The younger children are at Guide Camp for the week - somewhere on the coast - and my other half is visiting the Lake District for a few days - at the opposi...
Ready Player One
The first teaser trailer of the “Ready Player One” movie was released yesterday, and although I’m looking forward to it, I’ll already admit to being downhear...
The Weekend So Far
Yesterday evening my other half headed out to a local music festival with her brother, and I had planned to have a quiet night in with my daughters - watch a...
Working From Home
No, the photo accompanying this post is not of my desk - it may as well be though. Why get on with work, when you could quite easily spend all afternoon arra...
Work Money And Ethics
My parents are by most people’s standards, “independently wealthy”. Our family had a family business when I was growing up - a pretty major quarry that made ...
Up Periscope
I decided yesterday lunchtime that having the blog name appear in comments in place of my name was ever so slightly ridiculous, so have changed my name in al...
Memories Of Ms Dos 5 Windows 30 And Gnu Linux
In early 1992 I saw Windows 3.0 for the first time. I had asked to use the laser printer of the IT department at West Oxfordshire College to print out a poem...
Somebody Finally Noticed Me
I don’t own a car. I cycle to work each day, and travel by train when visiting far-flung client offices. The cycle route to work is only three miles each way...
One Word
I just spent the last four hours pouring over the programming I have been working on recently, after an “all up” test late yesterday went disastrously wrong....
Migrating And Curating
My phone has been sitting on the corner of my desk at work all day, quietly having a nervous breakdown. I installed the Flickr app on it, and told it to star...
Game Of Thrones
After getting in from work this evening, eating dinner, washing up, and clearing up the kitchen, I went searching on the internet to find out how much it mig...
Building A Better Bat Cave
It struck me this afternoon that my attempts to drive a wedge between the “professional” me that wanders around the country pretending to be clever, and the ...
Sushi J Pop Anime Manga And More At Hyperjapan London
My body performed the miraculous trick of opening my eyes five minutes before the alarm this morning - at 5:55am. It was a good job it did, because I forgot ...
Programming Temper And Trophies
I’ve written somewhere in the region of 1,700 lines of code this week for a client project. I’m doing it single-handed - responsible for design, coding, test...
Hyper Japan
I have a very early start in the morning - heading into London on the train with Miss 16 to visit “Hyper Japan” - a festival of all things Japan at the Tobac...
Shakespeare Never Wrote This
“What light through yonder window breaks? It is the Javascript Client Object Model, and I am the Sun, burning everything to ashes around me while celebrating...
Idiocy Is A Key Skill
For the entire time I was playing with Blogger, hoping for it to be better than it actually was, I was secretly cross-posting into a hidden WordPress blog. I...
Another Awards Evening
I left work an hour early this evening, in order to get home in time to feed the children before heading out to another school awards function. The children ...
Awards Assembly
This morning I attended the school “Awards Assembly” - where groups of kids get marched up in front of the school to have a nervous breakdown in front of a m...
An Old Friend Returns
While hiding in the junk room earlier this evening, in-between sessions of washing dishes, clearing the kitchen up, and brokering peace in the latest argumen...
Monday Morning
I’ve been head down writing programming since the moment I walked into the office this morning - well, since I filed my time-sheet for last week to keep the ...
Ignoring The Amazon Echo
The mighty everything store in the sky is offering wondrous deals at huge discounts today, because it’s “Prime Day”. It’s kind of like saying “Here’s some mo...
Has Anybody Seen The Weekend
What on earth happened to the weekend? It feels like I only walked out of work an hour ago. Of course that ignores the hours spent washing clothes, washing d...
Watching Again
I started watching “The OA” again tonight. I originally watched it on my own while holed up in a hotel with work - the entire series in one night on Netflix ...
Aligning The Planets Again
I guess with this whole re-boot thing going on, I get the chance to re-write my about page - or even not bother with one. Do I write a self-aggrandizing pile...
You Cant Make It Up
For the past several months project work has been lining up in front of me like an endless snaking train. It just so happens that I have lucked into having t...
Skull Island
After clearing the dinner things away this evening, we huddled around the TV in the living room, turned the volume up, and sat down to watch “Skull Island” t...
Conference Call Anxiety
Am I the only person that suffers from anxiety before a conference call? I had a client call at 10am this morning, and for half an hour leading up to the cal...
Hello Again
Well this is an unexpected turn of events. If you arrived here via an email I sent you, or a blog post you read elsewhere, you’ve just learned that I upped s...
Down The Internet Rabbit Hole
In what could easily be described as a fantastically stupidthing to do, this morning I created both a Facebook Page, and a Google+ “Collection” for this blog...
In The Office
I’m back in the office today. Currently taking a break, writing things into the Filofax, and comparing calendars between home, and work - figuring out what I...
Struggling
I have been quietly struggling with “blogging” for months, and resisting the temptation to write about about it, because who wants to read a blog post about ...
Rest In Peace
It started like any other Saturday. I woke at about 7:30, gazed at the ceiling for a while, checked my phone, then eventually wandered downstairs to have a s...
Its Been A Week
I don’t think “drained” is really the right word - “empty” might be a better word. Half an hour before leaving the client site yesterday the code was in piec...
Wednesday Night Hotel Club
I have been sitting in my hotel room for the last two hours, mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and a succession of news websites in sea...
Tuesday Night Hotel Adventure
I signed out of the far flung building I occupied the 5th floor of at 6pm this evening and trudged back to my temporary residence through the puddles brought...
Rebooting My Music Collection
Late one night over the weekend I decided to delete everything I had uploaded to Google Music, and start over. I guess it was a “nuclear” option of sorts. A ...
North
It’s been a day. I’m not really sure where to start. I’m guessing the beginning might be as good a place as any.
Rock Bottom
Contrary to the rather misleading title, this post is not about a personal disaster resulting in “hitting rock bottom” - it’s about the local summer music fe...
Another Train Journey Another Hotel
Tomorrow lunchtime I will make the familiar journey on foot to the local railway station, head first towards Kings Cross in central London, and then on to th...
Something I Struggle With
When any of you post a nice photo, or tell a funny story, I’m invariably late to the game. I think “I have to write a comment on that” - “awesome photo”, “be...
Contemplating Change
For the last week or so I’ve got in from work, done the chores, then sat outside and watched the cats, hedgehogs, bats, and whatever else go about their busi...
Dads Night At The Girl Guides
After getting home from work this evening, eating dinner, and washing up, we headed straight back out to “Dad’s Night” with the local Girl Guides. I guess th...
Meh
I’m sitting in the office at work after spending much of the morning writing documents. The temperature has been steadily climbing throughout the morning - i...
Marilyn
I’ve noticed a few photos of Marilyn appearing over the last few days, and thought it might be time to tell my Marilyn story - for those that haven’t heard i...
Nerd Problems
My “go to” computer at home is a Google Chromebook, because it’s fast, it lasts for ages on a battery charge, and it “just works”. Here’s the thing though - ...
Fathers Day
After waking up with the rest of the house this morning at 7am - they were heading to a football tournament - I arrived downstairs to find Miss 13 waiting fo...
Good Friends
We were invited to a friends this evening to eat, drink, and spend a few hours catching up with one another. We sat in the garden, ate wonderful food, drank ...
Information Overload
When it comes to catching up with the news, I have become increasingly lazy. In the UK we all pay for the BBC to exist, and along with that funding comes a n...
Strange Dreams
I don’t usually remember dreams. I’m not sure why. I remember the dream I had this morning though - and again, I’m not sure why - perhaps because I told my o...
The In Between
I’m back in the office today, and curiously devoid of immediately pressing work. I have a notebook full of notes from the day-out yesterday, but suspect the ...
Welcome To Cardiff
Greetings from a Travelodge hotel in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. I left home early this afternoon, jumped on a train, and began a journey that took me acro...
Sunburned Sunday
It’s been a pretty long day. After over-sleeping for the first time in months and not arriving downstairs until 10am, I jumped straight in the shower, had a ...
Stop The World
Do you ever have days when you wish the world would just slow down for a bit and give you a break ?
Revisionist History
We seem to be surrounded by soap-box philosophers at the moment, comparing political ideologies against each other, and comparing current public figures to t...
Resisting The Urge To Vent Spectacularly
I got back from travelling around the country with work a couple of hours ago. On the final leg of the journey home I picked up a copy of the “Evening Standa...
Dinner For One
The world malfunctioned this morning - instead of deciding to rain, or to be sunny, it got stuck on the “sprinkler” setting, and drenched the world with a fi...
Returning To Manchester
Today began like any other work-day - scrambling through breakfast time with the children, before retrieving my bicycle from the shed in the garden, and peda...
A Surprisingly Productive Day
I woke a little after 7 this morning - with the faint sound of an alarm from another room in the house. The sound finally fell silent, I remembered it was Su...
Crossing The Streams
About a year ago I reduced the number of people I call a friend on Facebook down to just those I know in the “real world” - old school friends, the parents o...
Thinking Too Much
I resurrected the WordPress blog yesterday - the one connected to my real name. I had been “taking a break” from it for a few weeks - deciding if I really wa...
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
Tonight I finally got around to watching”The Perks of Being a Wallflower” - ahead of reading the book, which has been sitting on the shelf in the junk room f...
Scrolling
I have just spent the last twenty minutes scrolling through other people’s lives on Tumblr - watching their thoughts, dreams, nightmares, hopes, wishes, memo...
Nothing
It has been a bank holiday in the UK today. I haven’t achieved anything, other than a little tidying up, a little washing up, and a trip to the supermarket t...
Living Vicariously
I admire so many of the blogging community so much through the photos and thoughts they share. They are all by turns brave, honest, fierce, beautiful, intere...
First World Problems
At the moment I seem to be caught in a battle for the heart and mind of my organised self. The protagonists are the phone, a collection of various internet s...
Contemplating Darkness
While sorting through the various detritus in the study last night (we laughably refer to it as the study - it has more akin with Monica’s junk cupboard in “...
My Daughters Get It
I have three girls - aged 16, 13, and 12. Tonight they made me perhaps the most proud I have been of them in quite some time. We were talking about the bombi...
A Rare Day Out
It’s rare that I ever get the chance to attend any kind of event to do with my work - conferences, meetups, that kind of thing. About two weeks ago I receive...
Half An Hour To Save The World
After sitting in the conference room since I arrived at work this morning, I’m finally back at my desk, with a half-hour window to post this before heading i...
Sunday Sunday
This weekend seems to be doing it’s level best to vanish without a trace. I’ve been stuck at home all day, washing clothes, washing dishes, hanging stuff out...
Saturday Morning
I woke a little after 7am this morning, and stared at the ceiling for a while, listening to the clock radio. I have no idea how to re-program it not to kick ...
Late Night Thoughts
I guess technically I’ve already missed posting anything for “Thursday” - it’s already nearly 1am on Friday morning. I’m playing the age-old game of “staying...
Not Much To Say
I don’t seem to have much to volunteer to the internet at the moment. There are only so many ways you can tell the story “cycled to work, worked, cycled home...
Nothing To Report
It’s just gone 9pm on Monday evening. I’m not sure where the day went. I seemed to spend most of it holed up in the conference room at work - either watching...
Wembley Stadium
We got on a train early this afternoon to Wembley Stadium in London, to watch the women’s FA Cup final between Manchester City and Birmingham. I suspected on...
Tinkering Again
For the last few months I have kept two blogs going - one at Tumblr, which is easy and fast, and one at WordPress, that looks nicer, but is more time consumi...
Falling Off The Blogging Horse
I feel like I’ve fallen off the blogging horse just recently. It’s not just that I’m having trouble getting back on - more that I’m wondering”what’s the poin...
Dont Be A Stranger
Over the past couple of days I began todoubt if my membership of Second Life might go anywhere. I logged in a couple of times, but as is usual, life the univ...
Distant Loss
Somebody I vaguely knew via the internet died today. She was not the first, and will not be the last, but it was another reminder that our time on this plane...
Worlds Without End
A few days ago I wrote about Second Life - the virtual reality portal that burst onto the internet perhaps 15 years ago, burned hotter than the sun for a few...
Second Life
Late last night I started watching a documentary on Netflix about Second Life - the online virtual reality community “game” that appeared about ten or fiftee...
Crossing Paths Again
On Monday evening, shortly after arriving back from the coast with a car full of dirty clothes,I turned tail with our youngest daughter and walked into town ...
Minimum Effort
I’ve been trying to write this blog post for the last three hours. Being honest, writing ranks lower than any other draw on my time - which probably explains...
A Weekend Away
I was going to begin this post with some sort of clever remark about nobody searching me out to discover where I have been for the last few days, but then re...
An Australian Sports Bar In Frankfurt
Trying to find authentic places to eat in central Frankfurt is futile, because just like any modern international city, it’s filled with every cuisine you co...
Walking The Streets Of Frankfurt
After finishing work unexpectedly early this evening (who knew mainland Europe were all work-shy? I want to move here immediately). Seriously though - I’m us...
Preparing To Fly
In a couple of hours I’ll be on the first of a couple of trains, headed towards London Heathrow airport. I’m flying to Frankfurt in Germany for the week - li...
Departure And Arrival
Departure I’m sitting in the departure lounge of Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport, just outside London. I got here far too early. Official guides tell you to a...
Human
While walking into town to buy groceries this morning I whiled away a few minutes scrolling through the Tumblr dashboard, and happened upon a distant friend ...
Nothing Is Simple
I have meetings until 4pm today, and then I’m out of here. I have no reservations on the train, so will most likely be standing up for the first three hours ...
The Lady In The Restaurant
Today was a good day. I woke at ridiculous o’clock before contemplating the ceiling of the hotel room for several hours. I skipped the ridiculously over-pric...
Here There And Everywhere
I returned to the office this morning - just long enough to clear email, and start fixing issues discovered on a client site. After a couple of hours working...
Bank Holiday Monday
It’s a bank holiday in the UK today. You’ll be pleased to learn that I have achieved nothing at all, all day so far. At the time of writing it’s just past 2p...
Easter Sunday
It’s been a slightly crazy day. Miss 13 woke us at 6am this morning, asking if she could get up yet. All she had on her mind was the Easter Bunny, and the pr...
The Harry Potter Studio Tour
After a week off work achieving very little, the weekend has been a full-on sprint so far - filled with days out, nights out, and more days out. Somewhere al...
Birthday
Miss 11 becomes Miss 12 today. I’m wondering where the time has gone. The tiny little girl with blonde curly hair has become a leggy gazelle with athlete’s c...
After The Party
We are still alive - and most credit goes to the staff at the local bowling alley, who seem to have the entire children’s birthday party routine figured out....
Miscellaneous
Builders were supposed to arrive at our house today to finish replacing the flat roof at the back of our house. I got up at 7, had a shower, shave, brushed m...
Mid Morning Radio
There’s something they don’t tell you about having a “staycation”. While you’re sitting quitely in the lounge with your laptop mid-morning, and the radio is ...
One Day After Another
I have the week off work. You would imagine that would lead to a deluge of blog posts from me - unloading the darkest corners of my brain into the internet i...
Self Publishing
Ever since I started posting ablog on the internet, I have been quite careful to keep a backup copy of the words I have written - it stretches all the way ba...
Relationship Advice From A Machine
A little while after arriving at work this morning, I opened my email with the requisite amount of trepidation (I have grown to fear opening my work email ev...
Shhhh
The office is remarkably quiet at the moment - no doubt because most families that have disposable income or plan ahead have sodded off for Easter. The commu...
Tinkering
In-between putting fires out at work today, I have been tinkering with the archive of my personal blog. Rather than bore you to tears with a tale of teeth gn...
Flights Booked
Cutting a long and boring story very short indeed, this morning I have booked plane tickets and a hotel reservation to travel to Frankfurt in Germany with wo...
Winning And Losing
After arriving at work this morning and feeling pretty okabout life, the universe, and almost everything for the first time in ages, I opened my e-mail and d...
Pictures Dont Always Tell The Story
Anybody looking at the photographs I posted to the social internet via my phone this afternoon would have thought I had a delightful day wandering in the sun...
Childhoods End
For the last several years we have been amassing a collection of bicycles in the shed behind our house. Bicycles our children had either been given, or had b...
Nothing To Report
I’m sitting in the living room, on my own, in the dark. It’s heading towards half past eleven in the evening, and I’m the last person up. My other half went ...
Have Bike Will Cycle
Not a lot of people know that I cycle to work every day. I don’t actually own or drive a car. It means we save a small fortune every year, and it also means ...
The Finish Line
This afternoon I finally dragged the project I have been working on over the finish line.Of course this is only the first finish line. The monstrosity I have...
Carrying A World
I’m still buried in a huge development project at work - I dread to think how many thousand lines of Javascript are now in play. For the last couple of days ...
Morning
I woke several hours ago, and stared at the bedroom ceiling for a while - daydreaming about whatever it is you daydream about in the moments after you wake u...
Returning To The Fold
If you were wondering where I have been for the last month or so, I went on something of a blogging adventure, writing under an assumed name at Blogger. I th...
Falling Off The Blogging Horse
It feels like ages since I last opened up in a blog post. Since the start of the year all I seem to have done is turn the pedals of the internet - doing the ...
Above Top Secret
I went somewhere rather special with work today. I would love to tell you the story of my day, but can’t. I’m not even going to give hints about where, or wh...
Slow Start Sunday
I didn’t get out of bed until 10am this morning. I can’t remember getting up that late in months - maybe even years. I stumbled downstairs and discovered the...
Leaving Town Alive
It’s just gone midnight on Friday night. I arrived home a couple of hours ago. The first train headed south from Leeds after work was cancelled - after queue...
Running For A Train
It all looked so simple. When I ordered the train tickets a few days ago, I thought I would be daring, and order specific times for specific trains. This sna...
Preparing To Travel
Here we go again. At lunchtime today I will walk to the local railway station and begin a journey first towards Kings Cross in London, and then on to Leeds i...
Best Intentions
I was going to stop for lunch today. I had every intention of downing tools for an hour, kicking back in my chair, and gazing at the ceiling for a while. Of ...
The Lifestyle Distortion Field
It struck me this evening that I may have stumbled upon a direction for this blog - or rather, the direction I don’t want it to go in.
Tantrums Tears And Tiredness
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room, listening to a James Taylor album. I’ve tried to write this post about six times so far. Each time I write half a s...
Slowing Down
There was something about the expression on the puppy’s face in the photo accompanying this post (it’s a stock photo, if you were wondering). I think it’s th...
Probably A Mistake
I quietly re-joined Tumblr [https://telespoke.tumblr.com/] a few days ago. I’ve been posting links to the forgettable detritus I post here, but can feel grav...
Coming Up For Air
I’m sitting, gazing absently at the computer screen, and can’t think what on earth to write. I’ve been buried in a vast software development project at work ...
I Cant Even
It’s been a day. And that’s all I have to say about that. I’m not going to empty my head, and record a potentially destructive record of everything that went...
Second To Last
Before we start, it’s probably worth pointing out that the above photo was scraped from a Google search. Any similarity or likeness to our table of reprobate...
Procrastination Books And Lazy Sundays
In preparation somewhat for the next few weeks, I made the conscious decision to not do anything today, and you know what? It was really hard. Aside from the...
Another Year Older
A few minutes before the end of work yesterday, I heard a familiar sound climbing the stairs through the building towards my office, followed by a co-worker ...
Relentless
I feel like I’m on some kind of treadmill at the moment. Almost every day is the same. The same routine from the moment I get up, until the moment I fall asl...
Another Day
I am now five days into the desperate sprint to build what has turned out to be a far more complex project than anybody imagined when the brief arrived in my...
Building A Wish List
Tonight I have been tasked with putting together an Amazon Wish List full of affordable things that my family might choose from for my upcoming birthday. Bef...
Parents Evening
At 2:45pm this afternoon an alarm went off in Microsoft Outlook on my work computer, and reminded me that I needed to race home soon to meet my other half, a...
Strangers
[https://strangecodex.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/ab412-c00ed-pexels-photo-266046.jpeg] While wandering through town early this morning on a mission to comp...
Missing A Day
Well of course I didn’t “miss a day”. I didn’t lose a day. Thursday happened. I just didn’t post anything yesterday - mainly because if you’re a software dev...
Submerged
I hit the ground running this morning, and started the programming for a new project. I completely lost track of time, and before I knew it there was only an...
Back To Work
I returned to the office today after the better part of six weeks either travelling around the country, or sick at home. I will admit to a certain amount of ...
Haircuts And Days Off
I had a day of leave booked today, so took the opportunity to get my hair cut. I also took the snap decision to get my hair cut somewhere completely differen...
The Lady On The Bus
I travelled to town on the bus this morning, on a not-so-secret mission to buy this and that from the high street shops that we all feel guilty about using b...
Dinner And Friendship
I was invited to help celebrate a birthday last night - a simple evening of food, drink, and conversation with close friends. After the month long battle wit...
Friday Morning Coffee
After being sick for the better part of two weeks, my body finally appears to have remembered it has an immune system, and has wandered off to see what on ea...
Books I Have Not Read
Now there’s a title for a blog post. Of course I’m not talking about all books in the published universe that I have not read yet - just the ones on the shel...
Why
Somebody I have known on the internet for years emailed me this afternoon, asking why I chose Blogger over WordPress. I suppose the question really opens a c...
So I Had This Dream
I had a weird dream last night. I can’t remember much about it now, other than it made a lot of sense in the dream to shut this blog down, and start again el...
Breaking The Silence
It’s been four days since I last posted anything to the blog. I’m still sick. I have to make a decision in the morning about either calling the doctor to try...
Home Already
I was supposed to be at the far end of the country all week. Given that I have been sick for the last two weeks, and was gradually getting worse, leaving in ...
One More Week
In about three quarters of an hour I will leave the house for one more week on the road. One more week of living from a bag in a hotel. One more week away fr...
Sunday Morning
After an early night to give my body every chance possible of fighting off the virus that’s been hanging over it for the last week, I slid out of bed a littl...
For One Day Only
I’m back in the office today - for one day only - enough time to fileexpenses from the last several weeks, sit in on a few meetings, and then trundle home on...
Running Out Of Words
When you’ve been on the road non-stop since the start of the year, you start to run out of anything noteworthy to say about your day. Each day becomes much l...
Tuesday Night With Idina Menzel
It doesn’t feel like Tuesday night. Do you ever get that? When you get to a certain point in the week, and you think “Really? Is it really only Tuesday? Sure...
Random Utterances
It’s 9pm. I’m hundreds of miles from home again. Holed up in a hotel again. Scheduled to arrive at an office block across the city I’m staying in tomorrow mo...
A Unicorn Of Sorts
While reading a comment from a long-time reader of my blog earlier, it struck me that there are relatively few of us left. By “us”, I mean the bloggers of th...
Words From The Way Home
The following words were written yesterday while on the train heading back down the country. I had planned on posting it last night, butnothing ever seems to...
Increasingly Distant
While swimming against the tide for months or years on end, struggling to keep my head above waterto keep my boat pointing in vaguely the right direction, or...
Thursday
Just a few words tonight - mainly because I left the charger for my laptop in a conference room, somewhere in the depths of a very big building across town. ...
Not A Teacher
I’m teaching again. I hesitate to use the word “teaching” though, because I know lots of teachers, and respect them enormously. If they heard me tell anybody...
From Manchester To Leeds
After another day stood at a lectern, pretending to know what I was talking about, I finally escaped late in the afternoon, and began dragging my suitcase al...
Media City Uk
After standing at a lectern for the better part of the day, trying to sound somewhat clever, I wandered back to the hotel this evening along a puddle-strewn ...
The People On The Train
Rather than tell the story yet again of how I sat on a number of trains for a number of hours, I thought it might be interesting to record the various people...
Obama Change And Distant Friends
It’s been fascinating to watch events unfold on the other side of the world this week.Quite apart from having family in America (my uncle and cousin live in ...
Heading North Again
Tomorrow afternoon Iwill walk to the railway station across town, and spend the greater part of my Sunday evening travelling north towards Manchester. After ...
From A Distance
While reading the blogs I follow at lunchtime, I spotted a post from a friend that has been absent for some time. They have been rattling around the back of ...
The Mindfulness Of Cats
While becoming increasingly stressed about the vortex of expectations and obligations surrounding me at the moment, it struck me that cats are rather expert ...
Booking Tickets For Future Travel
I spent the majority of today either filing expense claims for recent travel, or (rather craftily, I thought) filing expense claims for trains tickets that h...
Monday Night Hotel Club
I’m sitting in a hotel room 200 miles from home. I got back from the hotel restaurant a couple of hours ago, and all I have done since is obsess overthe thin...
Accidentally Via Oxford
While walking to the railway station this afternoon I took a look at tickets the machine at the station printed out, and noticed the overall journey ticket w...
One Blog To Rule Them All
I killed my Tumblr account last night. I know - I’ve done it before. Last night felt like the final time though, because it wasn’t so much about me, as the p...
Miss 13 Joins The Social Internet
My middle daughter turned 13 years old this morning. Before going to bed last night she made a point of telling me her phone was on charge, ready to install ...
Hoping For The Car Crash
If you listened to the weather reports in the UK yesterday morning, you would have thought the second great ice age was about to begin. A storm was approachi...
A Long Slow Journey Home
I left the office at 12:30 this afternoon. The lady on reception in the office building called a cab for me, and I busied myself with calling home while wait...
The One Where My Stomach Re Programmed My Brain
I took the remains of last night’s pizza with me to the office this morning - wrapped up in the sandwich bags I bought from the supermarket while waiting for...
Remembering Thoughtcafe
In early 2000, while learning about web development, I built a simple website for people to post stories to. The site began with a few pieces of writing of m...
Tuesday Night Pizza Club
After escaping from the office at a little after 6pm this evening, and making the epic journal (about 100 yards) to the hotel, I dropped my backpack, got cha...
Last Man Standing
While sitting on the train, rumbling towards the north this afternoon, instead of reading, listening to music, or watching movies, I watched the world go by....
Four Trains And A Taxi
You find me sitting in a hotel room, the better part of three hundred miles from home. The room is clean and tidy - or rather it was tidy until I arrived. I’...
Re Packing Bags
Tomorrow afternoon I travel to the far end of the country one again. The journey would normally take me into the heart of London, and back out, heading north...
Expecting The Unexpected
Both of our younger daughters play football for town teams. Football was completely their own idea - when the kids were little we imagined a future filled wi...
A New Suit Of Clothes For The Blog
I finally changed the look and feel of the blog this afternoon. I’ve used this design in the past, and it’s always been a favourite. The design (called “Asce...
The Common Cold
For the last few days I have been soldiering on in the way countless other parents do, pretty much ignoring my body’s attempts to combat a common cold virus ...
Ignorance Is Bliss
It struck me today that social media is becoming just as toxic as fashion and beauty magazines. There is probably a direct correlation between the photo-shop...
A Blogger Of The Old World
I watched a film on Netflix last night by Werner Herzog, about the history of the internet, and the way it has affected life for people in the developed worl...
Cancelling Travel Plans
All of the plans I made this week have now been torn into confetti and sprinkled around the office. The train tickets and hotel booking have been cancelled. ...
Tlc For The Trusty Steed
After splashing out on new tyres and inner tubes for my bike a few days ago, I finally got around to giving it a much needed clean, and swapped the tyres ove...
2016
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...
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...
2015
The Beatles
I’ve not been online much over the last 48 hours, but it appears the people in charge of the Beatles back catalog have. Their music has appeared on all of th...
Everything Changes
I’m moving my blog to jonbeckett.comif you wish to continue reading my adventures, feel free to bookmark it.
The Millenium Falcon
For our last hurrah of the year, we took the children to Legoland todaywe are fortunate that we live about half an hour away from the UK park, and they are o...
Slowing Down
The children have finishedschool, I have finished work, and we are finally slowing down. The groceries arrived today. The presents are bought (but not all wr...
The Force Awakens
After48 hours avoiding social media, newspapers, and magazine reviews, we finally got to the cinema last night to watch “Star Wars Episode VII : The Force Aw...
Five Trains In Five Hours
I’m finally home from the last trip away of the year. After suffering from headaches all week, I finally jumped in a taxi to the railway station mid-afternoo...
One Day Left
On the occasion of spending my last evening away for the year, I went out for a meal at the pub next door to the hotel. The following is more-or-less a direc...
Eating Alone
This evening you find me sitting alone in my hotel room, surrounded by the leftovers of a rather ramshackle dinner. Seeing as I have very little else to do t...
Awkward
I just finished watching the first season of the TV show “Awkward”. I downloaded it onto the Kindle Fire the morning I left. I wrote yesterday that I liked t...
On The Road Again
We pulled out of Euston 1 minute early (that’s never happened before). Currently hurtling across North London, watching the grey skies, industrial units and ...
More Thoughts About The Death Of Tumblr
Late last week an acquiantance in the US attended a marketing conference, where one of the panels featured a staffer from Tumblrthe minimalist blogging platf...
Mobile Blogging Solution
I’ve had a Kindle Fire tablet for the last few yearsit was originally bought for the children, but then got “handed down” to me when they moved on to bigger ...
Preparing To Travel
I’m not quite sure how this works, but I always end up travelling to the other end of the country in the final week before Christmas. This year I will spend ...
Peter Pan
This evening we took the children to see the pantomime performance of “Peter Pan” at the local theatre. After talking to a friend elsewhere in the world earl...
Back To Basics
Every so often I realise I’m trying too hard at this blogging larkpre filtering everything I might write, instead of just emptying my head into the keyboardr...
The Day Tumblr Died
Perhaps I’m being a little dramatic. Today at a marketing conference, Tumblr staffers on a panel confirmed while answering a question about the potential ret...
Infested With Viruses
We have two desktop computers at homeone that we affectionately refer to as “Trigger’s Broom”, and the other that was given to us by my Dad when he became a ...
A Difference Of Opinion
My brother in law invited me to accompany him to the local brewery last night. Every so often they open their doors to “club members” (there is a yearly cost...
Dawn Of Justice
Late last night I was doing the rounds of the social networks before turning in for the night, when I happened upon the latest trailer for the upcoming Super...
Open Heart Surgery
I’m running around the house doing imaginary high fives. I just took the back off one of the ACER laptops we have hanging around the house, and soldered a wi...
Revisiting The Reasons I Write A Blog
Revisiting the reasons I write a blogsounds like it might be interesting. I can’t think that I’ve really changed over the last twelveyears or so, but then I’...
Revisiting An Old Story
Before starting out on this, it’s worth pointing out that the people I’m about to write about bear no resemblance to the people in the photo accompanying thi...
Resurfacing
I’m back at work today. Back for the first time since leaving abruptly on Monday afternoon. It’s been an interesting weekthe kind that the parenting instruct...
Falling Into Shadow
For the past several weeks I have been carrying a burden of sortsoneI’m not willing to share just yetbut one that is neverthelesshaving an effect on the word...
Every Ending Heralds A New Beginning
The last 12 hours have been interesting. What started as a single post to Tumblr inviting people to try out WordPress turned into a quiet murmurof sortspeopl...
The Arrival Of The Scout Elf
Something rather strange happened at home this weekend. As always when post arrives, the children heard the rat-tat-tat of the postbox, and ran to the front ...
Inciting A Tumblr Exodus
I posted to Tumblr earlier this evening, inviting people toswitch to WordPress. There has been a significant amount of discontent among the small community o...
The One Where I Fell Over
Ifellover on my way home from the dinner with friends on Friday night. We were turning a corner in the dark on an unfamiliar road, and I walked out onto a gr...
Friday Five
It’s been a while since I’ve done a post like this. I’m actually sitting at work, trying to kill the last half an hour while waiting for a server to sort it’...
My Doctor
While reading an interview with Steven Moffaton the Radio Times website about the writing and production of the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who, “The ...
The Absence Of Time
I have half an hour until I leave work for the day. Half an hour until I pull on my coat, bike helmet, and gloves, and do battle with the evening traffic in ...
Blue Origin
It seems to have escaped the main-stream news because it’s obviously far more important for every news organisation on the planet to cover doom and gloom sto...
Annual Appraisal
I had my “Annual Appraisal” at work today. It didn’t get off to the best of starts -I had been fire-fighting a server in a distant server-farm throughout the...
Moleskine
The level of attachment I experience to such a seemingly trivial thing is a surpriseI can now understand why people become obsessive over notebooks, diaries,...
Filofax
For longer than I can remember, I have carried a Filofax personal organiseraround with me. Back in the late 1980s they were quite the fashion accessorytoday ...
The Great Tumblr Exodus Is Gathering Momentum
Ever since Tumblr appeared on the web back in 2007, people have wondered what to do with it. For many it was a life-streaming scrapbook of sortsa place to qu...
Chasing The High
It’s happened twice in my life so farthe high. The first time I still lived with my parents.It all started on the floor of the lounge one eveningI was about ...
Returning To Wordpress
After something of an adventure duringthe past few months, I find myself back at WordPressfinally putting some foundations in place. Making an investment in ...
My Life In Their Hands
I really need a camera on my bike helmet. Some of the things I see on the road every day beggar belief. This morning I was in a queue of cars approaching a t...
Ever So Slightly Tired
My other half returned home after her week away yesterday eveningjust in time to immediately change clothes, and head out to the local community radio statio...
Friday Afternoon
I’m having a break in-between other things to write a quick blog post. It’s been quite a week. For those that haven’t been reading, I’ve been single handed t...
Single Handed
Two days down. Three days to go. My other half is at the other end of the country until Saturday. In the meantime I am doing the job she usually does when I ...
Thoughts About Writing An Online Journal
It doesn’t really matter if you call it “writing a blog”, “posting to a social network”, “publishing a diary”, or whatever else you might want to call itthey...
Missing A Day
I didn’t post anything here yesterday. This almost certainly means the world is going to end. Either that, or some kind of horrific fate is going to befall i...
Budget Computer Games
When I was 11 years old, I subsisted on “pocket money”. From when I had been old enough to go into town on my own, I had been given money each week on a Satu...
Pulling Out Of Nanowrimo Yet Again
You could say I was a fool for even thinking about having a go at it. At least the reasons for not pursuing it are simple enough thoughI need to spend the ti...
Falling Over
I’ve had an interesting evening. Just after departing Paddington Station, for the final hour of my journey home from the north of England, I was about to tex...
Gcse Computer Studies
The following is an excerpt from this year’s attempt at NaNoWriMothe quest to write a 50,000 word book during November. I am writing a memoir of my history w...
Travelling North Again
It’s Tuesday night, and I’m sitting in a hotel in the north of England once again, 300 miles from home. I’ve already bought “dinner” from the local supermark...
Christmas 1983
The Sony MSX came with a thick book filled with Manga illustrations of some children, and a robot. Apart from my brief foray into programming the decrepit bu...
The First 1000Ish Words
It all began with the unwrapping of a medium to large box on Christmas morning in 1983.
Walking To Town In The Dark
I wandered into the living room a little earlier this evening, and found my better half sitting alone half watching NCIS. The kids had gone to bed an hour be...
Thursday Morning Haircut Club
I split the skin on my right thumb a few days ago, under the edge of the nail. Whenever I put pressure on my thumb, it hurts. I press the spacebar on the key...
Random Utterances
The last few days have seemed like I’m a part of a big machinea machine that has some impenetrably mysterious reason for being. I get up, have a shower, get ...
Learning To Log Out
It’s already 11pm, and I’ve re-written this opening sentence 4 times. The netbook I just re-installed Windows 10 onto is refusing to play ballI wanted to hav...
Stopping At Two Glasses
After getting in from work and eating dinner I asked the kids if they might like to wash upseeing as they had been home all day (it’s half term), and I had b...
Distance Matters
I sometimes wish I knew more people on the internet that at least live in the same timezone as mehell, the same side of the planet would be better than the l...
Half An Hour
Half an hour. That’s how much of Sunday is my own, so I’m spending it emptying my head into the keyboard once again. There are probably more productive thing...
Waiting For The Cooker
I have 45 minutes to write something while waiting for the cooker to do it’s thing. My eldest daughter and I have shepherds pie for dinner (minced beef and g...
Two Fish Become Four
I had the day off work today. A normal person would have awoken late, got up sensibly late, and had a relaxed breakfast. I’m not sensible. I got up at the no...
Mayhem Central
It’s 10:30pm and this is the first time I have had a chance to really sit down today and do anything of consequence. Work was disrupted mid-day by a visit to...
Tiredness Abounds
After being parachuted into yet another project at work today with no prior knowledge, I left early to attend our middle daughter’s first parents evening at ...
The Great Swirling Tuesday Vortex
I got parachuted into somebody else’s project today. I was supposed to “make changes”, but ended up re-writing the whole damn thing in order to get a handle ...
Here We Go Again
I switched back to Blogger. In the last couple of months my blog has moved from Blogger, through WordPress, to Squarespace, to Ghost, and back to Blogger aga...
Jumpers For Goal Posts
All is not well in the local kids football team. I got our youngest up and out of bed at 7:45 this morning, giving us an hour before we needed to leave the h...
An Adventure In London
I scraped myself out of bed at 7am this morning - a Saturday no less - and woke our youngest. An hour later - after having a wash, throwing clothes on, and t...
Because We Have A Brain
A couple of weeks ago my other half asked if I knew any scientists or engineers - the local Brownie pack were doing their science and engineering badge, and ...
The One Where I Saved A Dog
I cycle to work on a mountain bike each day. The first half of the journey takes me through the centre of the town - doing battle with the school run traffic...
Working On My Own
I’ve been working on a sizeable software development project over the last few days in the office, and after reading some of the conversations on the #develo...
Monday Monday
Do you ever wonder what on earth you’re doing with your life? I sometimes do. It often feels like I’m on some kind of gigantic treadmill, churning out the st...
Leaving Evernote
I’ve been trying to figure out a good way of exporting my notes away from Evernote this evening, and am slowly coming to terms with the fact that there is no...
Windows 10 On A Sunday Morning
Since scraping myself out of bed at 8am, I’ve been caught up in an endless round of “stuff”. I just sat down for the first time with a cup of tea, and it’s s...
Ranking Bloggers At Livejournal
For the past few months I’ve been playing with LiveJournal - cross posting stuff into it, and doing my best to read and comment on a few other people’s stuff...
Paying Code Tax
A couple of weeks ago I began working on a somewhat sizeable software development project. It started out as a proof of concept - a one file program to see i...
Unexpected Discoveries
Quite some time ago I talked to a good friend who is a teacher about Kerbal Space Program, and how it might make a great activity day at school during their ...
The Hundred Foot Journey
After getting the children into bed, clearing the kitchen, and finally sitting down yesterday evening, we discovered there was nothing on the television, so ...
The End Of Most Things
Until very recently I posted regularly to both Tumblr, and WordPress. I have been a member of Tumblr on-and-off since launch in 2007, and of WordPress on-and...
Weekends Football Rugby And Spitfires
People always comment that they are having “one of those days” when they are running here, there, and everywhereholding onto life by their fingertips while t...
Strange Dreams
It’s unusual that I remember dreams for more than a few moments after I wake upbut this morning the bizarre story concocted by my unsupervised mind was perha...
One Morning Two Exams
An email arrived in my work email box just before I left yesterday afternoon, announcing that one of the technologies I am a so-called “expert” at now had ce...
The Kerbal Legacy
Whenever I get the chance at lunchtime in the office, I stop any virtual machines running on my laptop, close down the email, and go looking for a folder on ...
Tomorrowland
We watched the movie “Tomorrowland” late last night - or rather, we watched the second half of it - such is the chaos in our lives at the moment, the concept...
The One Where I Didnt Take Photos Of The Moon
After the mayhem abated last night, I got into bed and fell asleep - waking this morning at 7am when the radio alarm clock erupted into the local radio break...
That Thing That You Do
Several people have asked what I do for a living recently, and it occurred to me that I very rarely give much away on the social interwebs any moreso I guess...
Not So Great
Do you ever have weekends where they days merge into each other? I do. I’m going to invent a new day of the week - called “Satunday” - where you don’t go to ...
Remembering The First Nablopomo
About a year ago I stumbled upon a photo of a friend that died several years previously. She was driving early in the morning with her son in the back of the...
Inventing Internet Spaghetti
If this works, I will high five myself to celebrate my own stupidity. I have wired WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, Instagram, Flickr, and Twitter together with “...
Nanowriblopomo
It just occurred to me that if I do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) by writing 1600 words a day through November, that also qualifies me for NaBloPo...
Back To Work
I’m back in the office today, and trying to keep out of mischief. My task list had two things on it - both of which were complete before lunchtime. Now I’m t...
The One Where The Universe Gets Its Own Back On Me
And so begins day two of my self imposed incarceration. The cough/cold type thing is not getting any better - it’s worse if anything, which made the decision...
Paul And Thoughts About Horseshit
We watched the movie “Paul” last night on DVD. I had forgotten how good it was. We spent much of the movie looking out for the Easter Eggs - the numerous ref...
Busy Going Nowhere
After an epic five hour journey home last night, where two trains ran late, connections were missed, and the penultimate train broke down, I walked in the do...
Morning In Leeds
It’s heading towards 9:30am, and I’m sitting in a new coffee shop in Leeds called “Caffeine & Co” - it’s setup for local businesses to hold meetings - I’...
Parties Sightseeing And Tantrums
The weekend I had been dreading is almost over. I’m writing from a hotel in Leeds, after leaving my family at Marylebone station, in Central London. As ever,...
Rugby Returns
For the past four years Sunday mornings throughout the autumn, winter and spring have not been filled with late breakfasts, endless cups of tea, and catching...
Stop The World
You know the well worn phrase “stop the world, I want to get off” ? I’m starting to wonder if there’s an alternate phrase more along the lines of “don’t wait...
Nothing To Report
Life has been surprisingly quiet this week, while also remaining unendlingly busy, mundane, tiring, and aggravating. There has been no one big thing that has...
14 Years
14 years ago this morning I would have been running around Steventon House near Oxford, pulling on my morning suit jacket, adjusting my pinhole flower, and p...
Thoughts About Friendship And The Internet
I have noticed a growing divide between those who’s relationships with others predominantly exist among friends, family, and associates they meet in every da...
Freedom Has Conditions
The main problem that manifests on any social platform that gains traction is people. Pure and simple.
The King Of Retro
When people find out I am a “professional software and web developer”, I have no doubt that they anticipate my house being filled with the latest technology ...
And Exhale
I have nothing of consequence to share with the internet this fine Friday evening, but I’m not going to let that stop me writingsomethingat least. Once upon ...
The Asshat Hipster
I thought I might have nothing to write about on the way home this evening, but then the Universe stepped in and may as well have said “we can’t have that, l...
Wednesday Night Hotel Club
It’s remarkably difficult to write about anything when you’re sitting in a hotel room for the third night in a row, and you chose not to drag yourself to the...
Eating Alone
After work this evening I walked the tremendous distance - about 100 yards - to the pub adjoining the hotel for something hot to eat. I wondered in, walked s...
Heading North Again
I’m sitting on the train to Glasgow, which is presently sitting in the depths of Euston Station, London. I’m not going to Glasgow - the train is - I’m leavin...
Marilyn Monroe
My other half arrived home from her Mum’s late last night with a bag of things that had belonged to her Dad that she thought I might be interested in. Among ...
You Are The Night Sky
I have the strangest thoughts while catching up on blog posts. I’ve followed the majority of the people I follow for long enough that I might claim to”know” ...
What Kind Of Nerd Still Has A Filofax
I updated the calendar section in my Filofax today - I should really have done it at the start of August (mid year diaries run August to July), but because w...
The One Where The Nice Lady Cut My Hair Off Again
In recent days my hair had crossed the line from being half-way manageable, to slightly deranged. I tend to make the judgement as I pass the mirror in the ha...
I Want To Believe
Anybody who watched the X-Files back in the day will remember this poster on Mulder’s office wall. When I was a teenager I wanted to believe too. Then you ge...
Back To School
After a few days going through endless lists, and making seemingly endless trips to stationers, school clothes suppliers, sporting goods stores and so on, th...
Returning To Work
The radio alarm clock burst into song at 7am this morning, and got switched off perhaps one bar into a forgettable pop music track who’s name escapes me now....
The Journey To Ireland
Rather than tell the entire Ireland story in one go, I’m going to break it up into several smaller posts - otherwise it could stretch on for several thousand...
Preparing For Ireland
Wehead out of England to the coast on Wales on Friday night, and then catch the first ferry to Ireland on Saturday morning. We have rented a cottage in Count...
Perseids
We just spent the last hour on a blanket in the garden at midnight, gazing up at the night sky, trying to catch a few Perseid meteors. We saw quite a few. We...
A Day Away And A Journey Home
I woke up yesterday morning in yet another hotel bed, several hundred miles from home. I only took a change of shirt and underwear with me, so getting up, sh...
Thoughts About Blogging
I began blogging before the word had become part of the common vernacular. In the early days, people wrote about their daytheir life. Online journals formed ...
Monday Night Hotel Club
So, here we are again. Two hundred miles from home, holed up in a hotel for the night, ahead of a day sitting in an office pretending to be clever once more.
Sleeping Under The Stars
Our younger children slept out under the stars last night (my idea). I checked the weather forecast and suggested it. I think the deciding factor was the sug...
Change Is Good
It feels like we’ve been here before. Several times. I guess at least this time there is a reason for the scorched earth goings on, and the migration between...
The Endless Limbo Continues
Kicking my heels at home again. I was supposed to be working from home today, but one of our children was spectacularly poorly last night. My other half had ...
In Limbo
It’s the day after breaking the news of my father-in-law’s death. I’m in a curious kind of limbo - making breakfasts, packed lunches, doing chores around the...
Rest In Peace
My father-in-law passed away last night. We knew it was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier. The first warning came while at a friend’s barbecue the nig...
An Piano A Drink And A Bad Memory
We were invited to a barbecue at a friends house last night, and after eating too much, and drinking too much, I spied an old upright piano in their lounge. ...
Windows 10 Arrives
This marks something of a departure. This blog is usually filled with nonsensical posts about daily life. Today I’m going to talk about Windows 10. Unless yo...
Home
Three weeks. Three weeks travelling the length of the country to work on a distant client site. Three weeks living in a hotel room. I guess three weeks isn’t...
Everyone Thinks They Are Normal
I had no clue what I was going to write about this evening, but then read a stream of comments on Tumblr about choices of pizza, and start writing this nonse...
Escaping In Plain Sight
When I started out on this journey, I wrote things like “first day done”, “second day done”, and so on. I’m just trying to figure out which day this is - eig...
The One Where The Horrible Lady Snored
Once again, I find myself sitting in a hotel room on the outskirts of Preston, Lancashire to work at a nearby office throughout the week. Once again I have s...
The Day The Internet Died
While trudging back towards the washing machine to put the fifty thousandth load in the machine yesterday afternoon I noticed our eldest daughter stood in th...
Listening To Mr Mister
The title of this post could be a tongue twister, couldn’t it. In reality I’m listening to a play-list on Spotify called “Great Tunes” that I started compili...
Friday Night And Saturday Morning
It’s heading towards 1am as I sit at the computer. It has rained all day here - from the moment I arrived in the office this morning. It is still raining now...
Elvis Has Left The Building
Another Thursday, and another journey across the country aboard a long distance train. I now know that the 4pm train out of Preston is the “fast one” - cover...
Its Not About Who You Are
While holed up in a hotel with work over the last few days I have been afforded the chance to read a lot of the publications and websites that I normally wou...
Isaac Newton Donald Trump And Beef Pie
I left the hotel this evening with all the intentions in the world of crossing the road to theother pub - the one I have seen from a distance throughout my s...
Dinner With Grandpa Potts
After work this evening I decided it was time tovisit the local public house for dinner once again - to have a hot meal if nothing else. The arduous journey ...
Not Going Out
This evening you find me sitting in a hotel hundreds of miles from home, actively using the internet to escape my temporary confinement. I could have wandere...
Another Monday Another Journey
You would think - given the frequency I travel up and down the country that I would be used to the various coincidental adventures that creep up on me. Nope....
Single Handed Again
I’m surprised the washing machine didn’t spontaneously combust yesterday - apart from a pause when I took our middle girl into town with her friend for lunch...
One Week Down
The first week of my cross-country adventures is done. Wrapped. In the can. I checked out of the hotel yesterday morning and said goodbye to the predictably ...
Not Really Byron At All
Well that’s the end of that then. I paid the princely sum of 5 last night for high speed internet access in my hotel room, and the 24 hours just ran out. The...
Two Days Down
After the long and arduous journey from the office back to my hotel - all 100 yards of it, I decided to brave the recent unpredictability of my body, and act...
One Day Down
Ok. That’s the first day of this trip ticked off the list. Working with wonderful people in a wonderful office. The work part of this journey was never going...
Three Trains And A Cab Ride
I left the house a little after 3pm with the children in tow to deliver them to friend’s houses before heading to the railway station. Our youngest was “book...
Packing For Departure
I’m packing my bags today to travel with work - a five hour journey across the country this evening to Preston in Lancashire - the north west. Just to make t...
Rebellion Brewery Open Weekend
This weekend marked the bi-annual open-weekend of our local brewery, the Rebellion Beer company. About a week ago an email did the rounds asking who was goin...
On The Train
Well this is novel… I’m sitting on the train, travelling from Wycombe to Warwick, typing this from the bluetooth keyboard into the Evernote app on the Kindle...
Carrying Miss 10 Home
I picked our younger two daughters up from their dance class yesterday evening while my other half went to the “new starter” evening at the local “big” schoo...
The Reluctant Traveller
On Sunday night I have to get on a train to begin a five hour journey to the other end of the country with work. I will stay in a hotel for 4 nights, a short...
Returning To A Real Camera
While sorting through photographs the other evening to upload to our Amazon Fire TV (which provides a wonderful photographic slide-show screen-saver on the t...
Drawing Boobs Is Hard
While wandering around town yesterday, I bought a sketchbook for myself. I haven’t drawn athingin about ten years - which is a shame, seeing that I sat throu...
On The Subject Of Heroes
This morning I wandered up to the middle school summer fete, arriving in time to see our younger children take part in a dance performance. After making conv...
A First Year Of Football Comes To A Close
After finishing work this evening I cycled home from the office, and stopped off along the way to pick up dinner for our eldest daughter and myself. The rest...
The Wheels On The Bus
While sitting at my desk this morning, waiting for my computer to lurch ponderously into life, I started to drift off. The morning had been an endless rush f...
Tiredness Abounds
I’m not entirely sure how I’m still awake. At 3am this morning one of our daughters called out quietly from her bedroom doorway, and woke me instantly in the...
The Ello Bill Of Rights
Who remembers “Ello”? They were the anti-facebook that appeared on the internet about 12 months ago, and became the darling of the tech journalists for a few...
The Tuesday Morning Story
My body woke me this morning moments before the radio alarm clock burst into life - perhaps in a show of superiority - “He doesn’t need an alarm clock - he c...
The Creeping Gentrification Of Everything
Some of my friends went to the Glastonbury music festival this year, or just “Glastonbury” as it now seems to be called. Years ago it was a music festival fo...
A Wanderer Returns
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve walked away from WordPress, only to return a few months later. I do it at least once a year on average. This time...
Jurassic World
I took our eldest daughter to see “Jurassic World” at the cinema this morning (ok, I’ll admit - I wanted to see it, and she tagged along with me). Just warni...
Lumia 640
I finally got the chance this afternoon to switch my phone handset. I traded in the LG G3 that I’ve been using for the last six months or so, and replaced it...
Dropping Google Mail
I moved away from Google Mail last night. I had been using Inbox (Google’s whizzy new mail app) in both the browser, and on my mobile phone. If you didn’t kn...
Organising The Mayhem
I have decided to try and do something about improving my natural propensity to continue putting one foot in front of the other - after much thought and deli...
The One Where I Didnt Get A New Mobile Phone
In-between running errands this morning I realised I would only be a few minutes late for work if I dropped into our local mobile phone store to grab the Win...
Rebooting My Mobile Universe Again
About 18 months ago I was carrying a Samsung S3 mobile phone around in my pocket, and struggling to get it to last through the day. Although I “say” it was a...
First Residential Trip For Our Youngest
Our youngest daughter arrived in our bedroom doorway fully dressed, teeth brushed, and hair combed at 7am sharp this morning. She had obviously been standing...
Womens Tour Of Britain
There have been advance road closure signs around town for several weeksthe event they advertised finally happened this morning. My home townMarlow, in Bucki...
Remembering Jabber Irc And Usenet
I really miss the days before mobile phones and social networks took overfor three reasons :Instant Messaging applications, Chat Rooms, and Newsgroups. Yes, ...
Pain Lots Of Pain
While standing between the lounge and the kitchen drying up a mug, having a conversation with my other halflast night, I twisted to say something, and someth...
We Choose To Go To The Moon
Whenever I play Kerbal Space Program at lunchtime, I can’t help but think of the John F Kennedy speech in the early 1960sexcept I change the words somewhat.”...
One Developer Many Hats
While working on a project this week, it occurred to me how many different skills you need these days as a commercial software developer. I guess if you work...
Running
My eldest daughter has asked if I will go running with her. To be honest, it’s the perfect excuse to force me back into running again. Before we had children...
The Unclematter Engine
While trawling the internet a few weeks ago I came across the beginning ofa story I wrote in January of 2003 for a writing website called “ThoughtCafe”. I th...
Scriveners Second Chance
I woke this morning to the relentless pitter-patter of rain on the bedroom window, and squinted across at my better half, peeking from a gap in the duvet tow...
A Party With Friends
We escaped the house for a few hours last night to attend the birthday party of a friend. Part of the hard-wiring of my brain (lets call it “up-bringing” dem...
Tempting Fate
An hour after writing a post listing the various stuff that usually resides in my bag last night, my other half’s laptop finally decided to reach the technol...
Contents Of The Bag Of Holding
Over the years I’ve written out a list of the things I tend to carry around a few timesI thought it might be interesting to re-visit the theme, and take a lo...
Recommitting To Unblogging
Wow, the title of this post has lots of double letters in it. It sounded better in my head than it does written down. Anyway. Some time ago I wrote a post ca...
Eating Lunch Early
After finishing dealing with some work this morning (read: headbutting my desk repeatedly and swearing profusely under my breath), I suddenly realised that i...
Medium Publication And Letters
A few days ago I wrote about the decision to stop the cross-posting madness, and concentrate on writing in one place (here). I confidently predicted at the t...
Livejournal Endures
Over the past couple of weeks I have reverted my “username” on all of the big social internet platforms to my real name. I had experimented with a pseudonym ...
Turning A Corner
Those of you that have followed our story over the last decade will know all about our children, the start they had in life, and the struggles they continue ...
Who What When Where Why
If you arrived at my blog looking for the technical posts about all sorts of stuff, you’ll perhaps have been surprised to find that all manner of idiotic ram...
Apple Re Invents Music Not
I just sat through the last 25 minutes of the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference keynote, where a number of people who used to be influential music label f...
Unexpected Acts Of Kindness
I lifted my online world in the air yesterday afternoon and discarded huge chunks of it. I said goodbye to accounts at Blogger, WordPress, and LiveJournal. I...
The Maelstrom Abates
This week has flown past in the way that immovable objects don’t tend to - which sounds like a Douglas Adams line until you rewind back to my view of the wee...
Still Too Many Pies
I still haven’t pushed the plunger on Blogger, Tumblr, or LiveJournal. Just to add to the maelstrom, I moved my real/nerd blog to the Ghost blogging platform...
559Am
I just got back from the school, after dropping Miss 11 off. She is headed to France today on a school trip - travelling on the channel tunnel on the way, an...
Vague Post Is Vague
While not becoming intensely annoyed with a co-worker for wasting hours tinkering with something I built that worked perfectly until he tinkered with it toda...
Too Many Pies
I know I go back over this again, and again. I’m wondering about choosing one place to blog again. Don’t take any notice of this post - it’s just me “thinkin...
Listen To Me
Listen to me, Stan Lee - urr… umm… or me. I just checked the LiveJournal public profile listings thing, and realised I am only two places behind Stan Lee. Qu...
Slow Sunday
It’s just gone 4pm on Sunday afternoon. I’m holed up in the study with a glass of wine. I got up fairly early this morning - kicking around the house, tidyin...
Nymphomaniac
I downloaded the “directors cut” of Nymphomaniac this morning - the controversial Lars von Trier movie - to see what all the fuss was about. I’m kind of a fa...
Not A Secret
In the space of 1 month I went from being a nobody on LiveJournal to being 250th in the WORLD. Granted, I have no idea how they measure it, and I wasn’t even...
The One Where I Witnessed A Parenting Failure
After dropping our youngest at football training this morning, I realised I was the only parent at the side of the pitch, and thought “this is ridiculous”, s...
Tiredness Overwhelms
It’s 2:30pm on Friday afternoon. I have just come home from work early. My body is still running at a ridiculous temperature. It made no sense to sit at my d...
Losing Interest In A Book
For my birthday this year my family bought me a new Kindle. I had forgotten all about putting it on my Amazon wish-list, so the surprise was wonderful when t...
Here All Week
I discovered today that I will be in London all week. All I have seen so far is an email notification from a project plan update. I’m not really expecting an...
Bank Holiday Monday
Today didn’t really happen. Well… of course it did, but it doesn’t feel like it happened. I feel like I haven’t achieved anything of consequence.
Four Year Old House Guests
We are looking after a little man for a friend this weekend. He arrived in a blizzard of bags, clothes, sticky-up hair, and jumbled converstion yesterday mor...
Sunsetting The Prototype Social Blogging Network
Funding runs out today for the hosting on the prototype social blogging network I built a couple of years ago. It ran under the name “We The Users” for a whi...
Into The Woods
After a pretty ridiculous working week that saw me leaving the house early in the morning, spending hours on trains rumbling towards London and back, standin...
In The Audience For A Change
Normally when I set an alarm on the Kindle tablet, I wake up a few minutes it before it. This morning it was set to go off at 5:30am. I woke up at 4:30, 4:45...
One More Day In London
My three day stint as a teacher is over for this week. That doesn’t mean the early starts have quite finished though - I’ll be returning to London once more ...
The One Where There Were No Train Tickets
I arrived at the train station at 7:10am, a few minutes before the train departed towards London, in plenty of time to purchase a train ticket. A large, port...
Returning To London
I’ve written about the morning routine when working in London so many times in the past, I can’t imagine it is interesting to anybody any more. I’ll give it ...
The Morning After The Day Before
It’s just past 11am at the time of writing. I’ve been up since 8:30am - the kids got up about an hour later - after I had already had a shower, washed up, ti...
Rock The Moor
It’s just gone midnight, and I’m sitting in the study at home in the dark with a cup of tea. My entire body aches. I’m not sick. Just very, very tired after ...
Nerdy Post Is Nerdy
Well this is interesting. I’m writing this post on the Macbook - it’s the first time I had had it out for months. It’s been sitting on the floor of the junkr...
The One Where I Rescued A Puppy
After leaving the office this evening, while fiddling with the strap on my helmet, adjusting my backpack, and fastening my gloves, a black labrador puppy cam...
And Then They Were Gone
Over the years that I’ve made friends with people around the world via the internet, there’s one thing that I’ve seen again and again that has perplexed me. ...
Moving The Motherlode
This is going to be a very nerdy post. Just warning you in advance.
Meow Meow Beenz
Ever since discovering the “profile rating” number in the profiles at LiveJournal, I’ve been quietly charting my daily worth as calculated by the secret algo...
Nothing To Report
I woke with a start at 5:30am this morning. After blinking a few times, and opening my eyes wide, I rolled over and reached for the mobile phone. Any message...
Football And Dance Shows
After dragging myself out of bed this morning at 7am, I wandered into the kids room, opened the curtains, and started shouting the usual roll-call. On any we...
Busy Idiot
I should have known how today was going to play out as soon as I got up this morning.
Head Down
Today flew by. I spent the majority of it up to my ears in source code - in case you missed the tagline, I’m a software and web developer in the daytime.
Nuclear Meltdowns
It all began yesterday evening, when I offered Miss 14 half a glass of cider with her dinner. She had been really great for the previous few days, I was pour...
Tiredness Abounds
After fitful sleep last night I finally woke with the radio alarm clock at 7, and blearily checked my phone. Looking for emails, or messages as soon as I wak...
Walking The Woods Of Endor
While catching up with the various social networks this morning I was reminded that today is May 4th - “Star Wars Day” - so thought I might tell you a little...
The Weirdest Dream
I woke early this morning when our middle daughter thumped across the landing, creaked open our bedroom door, and asked if we were going to the French Market...
Tiredness Becomes Me
I woke a little after 5am, groped around at the foot of the bed for the headphones I had attached to the Kindle Fire last night, and blinked my eyes into foc...
Unexpectedly Ascending The Nerd Ranks
I’m not sure if this is anything to crow about, but a new follower at LiveJournal informed me that they found me via the “User Ratings”. I’ll admit that I ha...
Contemplating An All Nighter
I’m wondering if I can be bothered to set the alarm for 4am GMT to listen to the boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. I will almost cert...
The One Where My Weekend Vanished
Our youngest daughter is playing in the local football tournament at the weekend. The head coach sent out a plea for helpers yesterday (because as per normal...
Back In The Office
I’m back in the office today. Staring out of the window at the blue sky and cotton wool clouds floating past, wishing I wasn’t here. All I seem to have achie...
People Watching
At home the evening is pretty much mapped out from the moment I walk in the door - clear the kitchen ready to make dinner, sometimes make dinner, set the tab...
You Cant Make This Crap Up
I came home from work early today, to pack my bag ready to travel this evening. After doing so, our eldest daughter arrived home, and wondered out-loud who w...
Pretending To Be A Teacher Again
I’m putting on my pretend teacher hat once again over the next few days, in an attempt to educate and inspire a room full of business people in the use of so...
An Unexpected Adventure
After saying goodbye to my family late this afternoon, I set off for the train station with just the backpack on my back. I’m only away for two nights, so on...
The Spring Fling
Last night we combed our hair, put on smart clothes, and wandered down to the local primary school for the annual “Spring Fling” fundraising evening. The eve...
Running Ragged
Today didn’t really happen.
Far Too Early
I woke up at 6:30am, and instead of rolling over and falling back asleep, stared at the ceiling for a while. That’s what you get for going to bed at a sensib...
Its Been A Long Week
Super tired. Heading to bed in a few minutes unless the internet materialises a rabbit hole in front of me, and I look up and discover it’s 2am. I’ve done th...
A Difficult Day
We had some difficult news last night about a family member. It wasn’t completely unexpected, but still - it was difficult to hear, and to accept. I had to w...
Late Lunch Break
The project I have been working on for the last few weeks came screeching to a halt this morning because it became obvious that the client is working to a ve...
The One Where The Blonde Lady Chopped My Hair Off
Over the last few days my hair had crossed the line from “vaguely presentable” to “that man looks a bit weird”, so I drew a rectangle between 9 and 10am on t...
Some People
It’s very rare that I become annoyed with anybody online, but it happened today - not because of anything they did directly - but by their behaviour, denial,...
Blue Skies
It’s gorgeous outside this morning - blue skies as far as the eye can see. In the distance you can see the A380s and 747s in the pattern on approach to Londo...
The Kindness Of Aquaintances
Today a girl I vaguely know on the other side of the world bought me a “paid” LiveJournal account for a couple of months, and I’m kind of speechless. Of cour...
Disconnected
Somebody has disconnected the virtual machine I use to work on a remote client system, meaning I’m pretty much dead in the water for the next phase of some p...
Keeping Facebook At Arms Length
Over the last few weeks something has become more clear to me - that I need to keep Facebook at arms length. I don’t think I need to deactivate (it’s too use...
Goodbye Weekend
I survived the weekend. My other half arrived home about an hour ago (mid-way through the Grand Prix, which I saw no more of), and said a simple “thankyou” w...
In Search Of Life
In the same way many people watch television, movies, or read books, I head towards the internet when I have free time. I search out people sharing a little ...
The Second Teaser Trailer
I cannot remember having such a strong reaction to a teaser trailer. You know what I’m talking about, right? The second Star Wars Episode VII teaser trailer?...
People Who Know Everything
I keep seeing blog posts on the internet explaining everything about every single aspect of life - things nobody has probably ever thought about, and perhaps...
A Rare Evening Out
After arriving home from work this evening, and sitting down with a cold drink to recover from the bike ride home, I checked my phone for email.
First Coffee Of The Day
It’s nearly 10am, and I just made my first coffee of the day. I could do with another one.
Surrounded By Idiots Again
On my route to work on the mountain bike each morning I travel along a number of old Victorian roads - narrow roads, lined on each side by terraced houses. N...
Endless Amusement
The office where I work is nestled in the bottom of a quiet country estate - the final mile of my cycle to work each day is through leafy tree lined roads, a...
Aligning The Planets
A couple of weeks ago I announced to the world (or rather, announced to a random passer-by) that I was shuttering my public blog. Within hours I had of cours...
Tired And Annoyed
I got in from work at 6pm. Our eldest daughter was home, but the rest of the family were still presumably en-route home from the studio tour at Warner Brothe...
On The Occasion Of Becoming Miss 10
Our house transformed itself today into a small version of Hogwarts School of Witching and Wizardry to help celebrate the birthday of our youngest daughter. ...
Saturday Morning
I’m sitting in the middle of the lounge, which was tidy yesterday until my other half started “making stuff” for our youngest daughter’s birthday party. Tidy...
I Need To Stop Switching Platforms
It’s pretty miraculous that I have managed to hang on to the majority of my blog posts. I’ve switched from Blogger to WordPress, Tumblr, LiveJournal, Postero...
Going Nowhere
It’s Friday morning, and I’m sitting in the study at home, watching the world go by. I’m not going into work today - still suffering with the after-effects o...
I Have Nothing To Do
I still feel like crap - just in case you haven’t been reading, I’ve had the flu for the last week - and am about to go home a little early. I’m half watchin...
Going Against The Flow
A little while ago, while wandering the world wide web late one evening, I struck up conversation with an old friend. She commented that it often feels like ...
Buying My Own Coffee
After being pretty sick throughout Easter, I went back into the office yesterday morning - and lasted an hour. Trying to work with a head full of ibuprofen, ...
The Nature Of The Beast
I have begun writing this post five times so far. Sometimes I completed the first sentence, and sometimes I only got a few words in before hitting the backsp...
An Afternoon With Anna And Elsa
I considered titling this post “An Afternoon with Anna, Elsa, and a Thousand Screaming Children”, but it seemed a little long. Accurate, but long.
A Life Online
Over the years I have been on-line - and it’s more years than I care to remember - unlikely friendships have sprung up like weeds in the desert. Sometimes th...
Consistent Speed
After leaving the supermarket laden with grocery bags yesterday morning, I stood patiently at a road crossing, waiting for the lights to change. As they chan...
An Internet Theorem Resurfaces
I signed up for LiveJournal a few days ago. It’s not the first time I have been a member - in the days before Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and Tumblr swept a...
Slowly Seduced By Comic Book Art
Although I can remember reading comic books as a child, they tended to be the throw-away cheap comics sold at the newsagent in the UK alongside the daily new...
Jonathan Doesnt Live Here Any More
I finally pulled the trigger on a new home for my ramblings, and a massive simplification of my online life. I will now have one blog - one place to write - ...
Considering Armageddon
I have too many fingers in too many on-line pies. It’s getting ridiculous, and I’m wondering about taking the “new broom” approach to sorting everything out ...
Avoiding Temptation
I’m sitting on my hands today - avoiding the temptation to “build a better homepage” on the internet. I own my own name as a .com URL, and have a freebie sit...
Routine And The Order Of Things
When I arrived home from Scotland, I found myself at the kitchen sink within half an hour - washing up cups, plates, and cutlery, and putting things away in ...
Revisiting Livejournal
I revisited a old internet haunt this weekend, and signed up for an account.I had an account a LiveJournal “back in the day” - when blogging was in it’s infa...
Oh Freddy Im Doomed
Today started well. The children were up first, and after a quick shower, were discovered watching cartoons in the living room. A thirty minute warning was i...
From Selkirk To Euston
I woke ridiculously early this morning. The phone alarm clock went off, and woke me from the most ridiculous dream I had in quite some time.
Unexpected Kindness Surrounds Me
And low, he did mark the passing of his 42nd tour of a fairly typical main sequence star by sitting in his hotel room alone, drinking forgettable instant cof...
Selkirk Melrose And The Eildon Hills
Ever since I knew I was coming to Scotland with work for two weeks, I knew I wouldn’t be going home on the middle weekend, because the travel time required w...
My Perfect Hotel Room
While staying in a hotel this week with work, I’ve started to realise the things that really count in a hotel roomfor me. I was going to title this post “The...
Last Man Standing
While walking through Selkirk this morning in the bright sunshine, I passed an imposing statue and stopped to take a photo with my phone. While framing the s...
One Day Down
I woke up at something like 6am this morning, and considered getting up straight away - but knowing breakfasts in the hotel are not surved until 7:30, it see...
The Journey To Scotland
After getting up, making breakfasts and lunches, and hugging goodbye this morning as each of the children left the house for school, I zipped up my bag, and ...
Bang Goes Sunday
I had booked two days off work to spend time with the children ahead of the weekend, and then the trip to Scotland with work. We are into Sunday - the fourth...
Spotify On Saturday Evening
I just finished washing up after dinner - it feels like the day has been an endless sprint from start to finish, and the race hasn’t finished yet. I’m growin...
The One Where Friday Didnt Happen
I’m sitting in the study, half listening to the “Favourite Coffee House” mix on Spotify, and half wondering what I’m going to do with the rest of the day. I ...
High Speed Clothes Shopping
It’s been a year or so since I bought any new clothes for myself. Actually, when I say it has been a year, it’s probably been two or three years. When you’re...
Counting Down The Hours
It’s lunchtime on Wednesday morning. Just a few hours until the end of the working day, then I have a couple of days off work before the journey to Scotland ...
The One Where The Nice Lady Stole My Hair Again
In the absence of anything interesting or remarkable to impart this fine Tuesday lunchtime, perhaps a mugshot of what’s left of my hair will suffice. My hair...
A Day At The British And Science Museums
Our youngest is doing the “Ancient Egypt” project at school this term - and will be spending half term creating a “project board” - essentially a board fille...
Valentines Day
You all know that Valentines Day was hijacked (as with just about any other significant date in the calendar) by the Christian Church, right?
The One Where I Got Lost On The Underground
While travelling home from a distant work location last night, I had to traverse London via the vast network of underground trains. I’ve done it countless ti...
A Moment From The Journey Home
While travelling home on the train last night, I found myself sitting adjacent to two gentlemen of a certain age - perhaps 60 - dressed in suits, and sensibl...
Tuesday Night Hotel Club
I arrived back from the client site about half an hour ago. After skipping lunch I’m just about ready to eat my own arms, but have learned from last night - ...
Preparing For Departure
I’m having a dilemma. This afternoon I will be travelling north for a few days - staying in the Holiday Inn near a client site for two nights. I’m wondering ...
Another Week Another Hotel
Another week, another hotel. This week I’m in the Holiday Inn, a couple of hundred miles from home for a couple of nights. I can’t help humming the Elton Joh...
Something From Nothing
Another late night last night. Finally the thousands of lines of source code are beginning to conjure a website out of thin air. A website where parents can ...
Burning The Candle At Both Ends
For the last few years our children have taken part in a summer camp in town, that has steadily grown, year on year. I think last year they had in the region...
Nothing To See Here
While writing this, the time is marching inexorably towards 11pm. I have no idea where the evening went. Actually, that’s a lie. I know exactly where the eve...
The Starry Dynamo In The Machinery Of The Night
For the last year I had grown increasingly disillusioned with the social internet, and it’s much talked about power to make the world smaller - to connect pe...
Sunday Afternoon
It’s Sunday afternoon. The kids are playing with their friend in the park outside, the Kindle Fire is playing “Halt and Catch Fire” while propped against the...
Blogging 101 Ends
And so it was, while pretending to look like he knew what he was doing, he stumbled through January without falling over, and stayed the course. He followed ...
Rediscovering The Past
While digging through the long forgotten catacombs of the external network drive at home this evening, I came across a rather sizeable XML file with a crypti...
On The Occasion Of A 40Th Birthday
After work yesterday evening we broke all kinds of unwritten rules, and went out for a meal with friends at the pub -on a school night. Consequently this mor...
In Retrospect Our Adoption Journey
After resurrecting thousands of archived posts back into the blog earlier this evening, it occurred to me that I can finally re-tell our adoption journey onc...
Choosing A Writing Weapon Of Choice
While taking part in the Blogging101 course over the last month at WordPress, I have arm-twisted myself into writing more than in quite some time - which has...
The Journey Home
When I woke this morning a thought occurred to me - a rather important thought. Where and when was I supposed to be meeting with the client ? I slid out of t...
Trains Hotels Pizzas And Numpties
Everything was going so well. I got up, had a shower, made packed lunches, dropped the children off at school, went into the office for a few hours, came hom...
Has Anybody Seen The Weekend
I’ve been sitting on the couch with the netbook for the last hour, half watching the television, half wondering what to write about, and half watching the re...
Reinstalling Windows On The Netbook
Now and again I write a post that is so mundane, so boring, and so nerdy that those unfortunate enough to begin reading itconsider putting some kind of warni...
Express Yourself
For the past few weeks I have been taking part in the WordPress “Blogging 101” course, which I will freely admit I have used primarily to find new bloggers t...
Busy Going Nowhere
I’ve been twiddling my thumbs through much of this week - wondering what to do with myself. I over-estimated a piece of work that I’m scheduled on, so have h...
Recording The Mundane And The Minutiae
Today’s exercise for the Blogging 101 course at WordPress challenges us with the following; Build your storyteller’s toolbox by publishing a post in another ...
Nope Nope And Thrice Nope
I’m not doing the WordPress Blogging 101 exercise today, because it’s not really about writing - it’s about commenting - and commenting elsewhere isn’t about...
The Insanity Of The Social Internet
Returning to writing a personal blog on a regular basis this year has made me realise something - I live in too many places online. I’m tempted to use an ana...
Build A Better Blogroll
Today’s exercise for the WordPress Blogging 101 course asks us to share a few links to the sites we love. As is usual, I couldn’t bring myself to do the exer...
Serenity
No, this post is not about the space ship in the short-livedTV series “Firefly” - it is a response to WordPress “Daily Post” photoprompt”Serenity.”, and for ...
Books I Havent Read Yet
I thought about titling this post “the huge and growing mountain of books I still haven’t read, despite writing about this before, and despite still not doin...
The Life Of Pi
While our younger daughters had friends for sleepovers last night - yes, that’s right, two sleepovers, because we’re stupid - we let our eldest daughter stay...
Sunday Morning And Pancakes For Six
We had six children in the house last night - our three, and three friends. They roughly divided themselves into two groups - 10 and 11 year olds on the sofa...
The Calm Before The Storm
We have three girls coming to visit for a sleepover tonight. Add that to the three girls already in the house, and I can’t imagine us getting much sleep. It’...
Podcasts
I began listening to podcasts during the time I worked in London. I sat on trains for the best part of 4 hours each day, and discovered the various shows cre...
Nope
Today’s exercise for the WordPress “Blogging 101” course is titled “Spruce up your Sidebar”, and asks us to add a couple of widgets to the sidebar of our blo...
Be Inspired By The Neighbors And Moleskine Notebooks
I’ll forgive the intentional spelling mistake in the title, because I’m guessing the majority of the people who might stumble upon this blog post are America...
Organising The Chaos
Many years ago I wrote a post about the “Getting Things Done” methodology. At the time, the book by David Allen had just come out in paperback, and was being...
On Any Morning
The day began with a squint at the radio alarm clock next to the bed, which had begun filling the bedroom with the local radio station. Ispent a minute or tw...
Not Playing The Personalisation Game
Today’s assignment for the Blogging 101 course asks us to create and upload a simple header, and/or background, and to try a custom widget. I’m not doing it,...
Down The Internet Rabbit Hole
I just registered this blog at Bloglovin. I’m still undecided if I have placed one foot on a polished slide that heads straight to the depths of blogging hel...
People Watching
Some time ago I wrote a post about the pretty lady that rents out the house opposite the office where I work - about our chance encounters on mornings and ev...
Making The About Page Irresistable
This feels like cheating. It’s half past midnight, so technically Monday morning, but still Sunday night in my head. I was supposed to be heading off to bed,...
Cutting Another Parental String
Our eldest daughter has gone shopping on her own in a nearby town for the first time today. I will admit to being ever so slightly nervous. I’m not really wa...
Green Lantern
Prior to this evening, my only knowledge of the “Green Lantern” was that he was a comic book character, and that Doctor Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory...
The Week The World Got Bigger
I started the WordPress Blogging 101 course last weekend without any great aspirations, or aims - I just wanted to take part in something that hopefully kick...
Love Your Theme
Today’s exercise for the WordPress Blogging 101 course is called “Love Your Theme”, challenging you to try out different themes. I don’t really need to do th...
Celebrity Big Brother
We have a television hanging from a bracket in the corner of the kitchen, intended to provide distraction while cooking, washing up, or ironing. While ironin...
A Letter To My Younger Self
Today’s exercise for the WordPress Blogging 101 course is to write a post for a dream reader - real or imaginary. I have decided to write a letter to my youn...
Things I Carry
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...
Saying Hello To The Neighbours
Rather than follow today’s instructions for the Blogging 101 course to the letter, I’m going to ramble on a bit about some of the people I have followed over...
Say Your Name
My blog wasn’t always called “Recursive Words”. It hasn’t always lived at WordPress either. Over the years I’ve probably written at just about every popular ...
Re Forming The Writing Habit
For the past few evenings I have been sitting the moleskine notebook in front of me on the desk in the study junk room, and trying to empty my head. It’s not...
Blogging 101 An Introduction Of Sorts
I’m taking part in the WordPress “Blogging 101” course this year. I saw it advertised on New Years Day, and thought it only really applied to those new to bl...
Maleficent
After gathered in the lounge this evening on the last night of the Christmas holiday, we picked the movie “Maleficent” to watch while eating pizza, and drink...
Its All About You
While reading various posts published from the bowels of WordPress over the last few days, I happened upon a list of tips for those starting out. I used to t...
Be The Change
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Be the Change.” While exploring the “Daily Post” WordPress site this afternoon in search of some kind of “Ev...
The Long And Winding Road
We returned home from my parents on the south west coast this afternoon, and somehow survived the five hour journey without the children causing anybody to l...
Happy New Year
It’s January 1st, 2015. I’m sitting at the dining table in my parents house in Cornwall, accompanied by an empty coffee cup. The younger children are in the ...
2014
Too Many Thoughts
For the last couple of days I have been wondering about writing something big, important, and soul searching to mark the end of the year, but there are just ...
Catching Fire
We finally watched the second Hunger Games movie last night. I haven’t read the books yet (despite repeated requests that I do so from a good friend). I’m no...
The Morning After Dinner With Friends
Yesterday evening we invited good friends over for dinner. It was hard work, and the washing up was kind of like climbing Annapurna (which in reality I have ...
Boxing Day
I had visions of spending the greater part of Boxing Day playing board games with the children, and watching rubbish television shows.
Christmas Morning
We woke with the alarm clock at 7am, when we would normally fall out of bed to begin the weekday routine of getting the children ready for school, making bre...
The Relentless Run In To Christmas
I’m not quite sure why or how, but the run-in to Christmas this year has seemed relentless. I had visions of finishing work last Friday, and having a few qui...
Dick Whittington
One of my favourite Christmas traditions in the UK is Pantomimewhere famous actors take part inproductions at the theatre riddled with jokes, musical numbers...
Billy Bullshit
For our honeymoon (many years ago now) we went on a cruise, and sat at a large dinner table every evening. We made instant friends with everybody, and had a ...
An Unexpected Evening Out
My other half announced this morning that we were heading out into town tonight as a familya Christmas surprise from her to all of us. We were allowed to kno...
The One Where I Upgraded My Phone
I went Christmas shopping this morning in a nearby townand immediately after getting off the bus, walked straight to the mobile phone store, and started look...
An Alternative Christmas Message
Let me preface this by saying I am not religious (implying a belief in some kind of creatorwho’s existence cannot be proven), and I am not atheist either (im...
The Instagram Purge
It was like a million teenagers voices screamed out, and were suddenly silenced. Please excuse me for quoting Obiwan Kenobi, but this has to be the most ente...
One More Day
I have one more day left at work before two weeks of leave for Christmas. I will arrive at 9am, work diligently through until 5:30pm, and then exit the build...
Office Christmas Lunch
In half an hour or so we are all heading out for the annual office Christmas lunch. The office seems to be filled with people we haven’t seen in agesmany of ...
The Spirit Of Christmas Present
While cycling to work through the frost laden air this morning, I couldn’t help but be reminded of perhaps my favorite book at this time of year”A Christmas ...
On Friendship
Through many times in my life I have struggled to find the place where being a good person ends, and friendship begins - and where friendship ends and love b...
Cold And Frosty
Flying in the face of the long, wordy posts I have shared recently, I thought it might make a change to share a photo taken during my journey to work. I ride...
Choosing A New Mobile Phone
My mobile phone contract comes up on 19th December, meaning I get to upgrade my phone handset. I have no idea which way I’m going to go at the moment. I gues...
The One Where We Bought Three Laptops
We have been agonising over the decision to buy our children laptops for Christmas for the last week. We talked about it over the weekend, and pretty much de...
Professional Procrastinator
If there is ever an olympic event for getting nothing done, I’m pretty sure I could be a contender. It’s not that I don’t want to get something doneit’s just...
Frozen Rugby Christmas Shopping And Car Park Stalkers
When we left the house at 9:30 this morning, the frost was thick on the ground, and the car kept flashing “RISK OF ICE” messages on the dashboard. It was -3C...
Living It Up On Friday Night Not
In television shows people always seem to have time to meet-up with friends at a local bar on their way home from work on a Friday night, catch up with each ...
Three Children Three Laptops
We are currently wrestling with the idea of buying three laptops for Christmas for our children. It sounds insane, and it sounds expensive, but there is SOME...
The Twenty Fifteen Theme
Last night I noticed a post from WordPress in the dashboard that scrolls towards oblivion (and causes me to get nothing done)a post announcing the availabili...
The One Where I Swore At Somebody In The Middle Of The Road
Cycling to and from work through commuter traffic over the years seemed to have blunted my perception of “what might be considered idiotic, or dangerous”or s...
I Am The Weird Dream World Champion
I had a dream last night, and in the dream I recalled living somewhere previously. Here’s the weird thingI dreamed about living there before. A long time ago...
Late Night Shopping And Exploding Minecraft Livestock
I learned something new tonight. I learned that you really shouldn’t laugh when your other half opens a kitchen cupboard door above a mixing bowl full of coc...
An Unexpected Day Off
Our eldest daughter went nuclear again this morning (on top of being sick)the end result of which was me calling in to work, and staying home for the day wit...
Resurrecting The Netbook
I have had an ASUS netbook sat in the bottom of my messenger bag for the last year. I think it’s been powered up once, and because it booted into a Windows p...
Jumpers For Goalposts
Our youngest took part in her second ever competitive football match this morning. We knew late last week that she had been picked to play, but it didn’t mak...
Protests Public Nudity Breast Feeding And Prudishness
I’ve been reading blog posts and news stories about the breast-feeding protest taking place outside Claridges in London today, and wondering what on earth ha...
Down Down Deep Underground
Just when you think you’ve found a blogger that appears to write thoughtful posts you can relate to, he goes and writes a post about Minecraft. This blog is ...
The One Where The Lovely Lady Stole My Hair
Today got off to a fantastic start. It transpires that if you don’t help your 14 year old daughter sort her hair out at the exact moment she wants you to, th...
Domain Names And Paranoia
Over the last few days I’ve been finding it somewhat easier to write regularlyI suspect fueled by participation in NaBloPoMo, which I guess has forced the fo...
Behind The Magic Mugshot Curtain
I took a photo for the “Freyeday” meme on Tumblr this afternoon, and it got an instant reaction from a few friends. I knew it was going to get an instant rea...
In Love With The Freshly Written Word
There’s something about blogging. When I say that, I’m not talking about the niche lunatics recycling content through their fashion, food, or travel blogsI’m...
100 Followers
The little dashboard widget thing in the corner of WordPress informed me the other day that I had crossed the “100 follower” mark in my non-existent quest fo...
The Journey Home
After leaving the client site this afternoon I walked the all-too familiar route to the railway station, asked the information kiosk which platform my train ...
Is Everything Okay For You
After work this evening I wandered down to the hotel lobby and bought a drinkhalf celebrating a successful day (for a change). I figured sitting on my own in...
Life Isnt Like The Movies
This evening finds me holed up in the Holiday Inn Express once againseveral hundred miles from home for a couple of nights. During the daytime I will be wres...
Here There And Everywhere
We went out for dinner with friends last nightthe first time we have been out in several weeks, and the first time being “out out” for months. You’re probabl...
Were Going Out Out Stunned Silence
For the first time in what feels like a very long time (but is in reality only three weeks) we are off out for a drink and something to eat with friends this...
The One Where We Found The Twiglets
In the UK there is this mysterious snack called “Twiglets”. The only way I can describe it is “Marmite sticks”but then of course hardly anybody outside of th...
The Flash
Over the last month or so I have been downloading a television show from the internet for our children to watch called “The Flash”. I say “for our children”,...
Like A Rolling Stone
The Blogger experiment is over. I’m back at WordPress again. I’m not going to explain why, because anybody that knows me with stop listening (I move blog pla...
On The Road Again
I woke up five minutes before the alarm went off this morning, leaned across the bedside table, and switched it off. 5:25am. I then fell back asleep, and had...
Surviving The Webinar
Today was the day. The day of the webinar. The day where I stayed homefor the half-decent internet connectiondonned a ridiculous looking headset with microph...
Second Childhood
I never really read any comic books when I was young. I’m not sure why. I remember seeing them around, but they were never a “big thing”. I read the odd copy...
Hiding In The Junk Room
I used to call this place the “study”, but in reality it’s “the junk room”. A leftover room in the house where we used to put things “out of the way”. Since ...
Friday Lunchtime Brain Dump
I’m in the middle of preparing for a “webinar” on Monday - presenting clever stuff to people all over the place to do with my work. I would like to say there...
Sliding Further Under The Radar
I created a new email address today, and re-wired everything vaguely related to “Recursive Words” to it. Yahoo, Google, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogger, Pinterest, ...
Intentionally Polluting The Twittersphere
I’ve finally done something I should have done a very long time ago. I’m also writing a very long lead in to this post in the same way that people often anno...
One Of Those Days
You know those days where you do everything you know to make something better for somebody, and they keep coming back with problem, after problem, after prob...
The One Where We Visited A School
I wasn’t going to write anything about this, but as the day has gone on I realised it might be useful both for us to look back on our thoughts, and for other...
Sunday Morning
It’s heading towards 11am. The younger children have gone to a rugby tournament. I am staying home to keep an eye on Miss 14, who went spectacularly nuclear ...
Still Looking For The Weekend
Got up before everybody else this morning, made everybody else breakfast, washed up, took youngest to football practice, wandered home, made everybody lunch,...
Wild Goose Chase
While cycling home from work this evening I listened to “The Ihnatko Almanac”, a podcast on the 5by5 network, featuring Andy Ihnatko - the tech columnist for...
Cutting Up
On the way to work this morning a 44 that had been stuck behind me on the mountain bike for all of five seconds came thundering past, obviously in a hurry to...
Forced From The Road
My journey to work on the mountain bike takes me through perhaps the oldest part of town - narrow victorian streets, with narrow footpaths on either side. Th...
15 Things I Love
Tagged by Lacey over at Tumblr. I have no idea how I’m going to come up with 15 things, but I’ll have a go. These are in no particular order, just in case yo...
Second Cup Of Coffee
My word - this blog is just stunningly interesting this week. I literally have nothingto write about. Actually, that’s a lie - I do have something to write a...
Raspberry Pi
I just ordered a Raspberry Pi model B+ from Amazon, for delivery to work later in the week. I have no idea why I have ordered it. I have no real use for it, ...
One Foot In Front Of The Other
Every day at the moment seems like a struggle just to get to the next day - an endless round of washing up, tidying up, settling arguments, and so on. It som...
Three Glasses Hemingway
After collapsing on the couch late this evening, and sharing a few glasses of leftover wine from the Halloween party with my better half (a wonderful bottle ...
Short Post Is Short
We are heading out to a friends for dinner in a few minutes. I’ll probably be back before midnight, but just in case (and in order to keep up the NaBloPoMo t...
Were Going To Need A Bigger Monitor
I ordered a new monitor for the computer today. For the last couple of years I’ve put up with the one I bought with the computer that’s stuffed under the des...
15 Minutes
Today was an adventure. So much so that I find myself with 15 minutes to scrape inside the daily deadline for the lunatic writing journey I’m on. How much ca...
Amazon Fire Tv
We finally plugged in the Amazon Fire TV this evening, and decommissioned the XBox 360 from the lounge. Of course now I have nothing to plug the X-Box into, ...
A Picture Paints A Thousand Words
I’ve been wondering about including photos in my written posts. I swore them off for some time, because once you start including photos in posts, it sets a p...
Embarking On A Journey Of Blog Discovery
This evening I am heading out across the vast stretches of the internet in search of bloggers taking part in NaBloPoMo. I will follow a collection of them vi...
Back In The Office
I’m back in the office today after a few days off. I won’t lie - I was dreading coming in this morning for all sorts of reasons. Of course it turns out that ...
The Trouble With Tumblr
I tried to take part in a social “meme” on Tumblr today. At 11am I posted a video exported from iMovie (I won’t bore you with details - lets just say it was ...
Ten Minutes To Myself
It’s Sunday morning, our youngest is at church, and I have just dropped our middle girl off at a birthday party. I have about three quarters of an hour until...
The Day After Halloween
I fell out of bed a little after 9 this morning, and discovered the younger children camped out in the lounge watching cartoons, surrounded by wrappers, deep...
Halloween
Yesterday was Halloween. I’m writing this at 1am the next morning, so it really wasn’t very long ago. I guess it would still be correct to write “tonight was...
November Nablopomo
“National Blog Posting Month” was invented by Eden Kennedy in 2006 for those of us that were never going to have a chance at “National Novel Writing Month” (...
Importasaurus Rex
I just pulled the last 2 years worth of personal blog posts back into here. Yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to, but there’s something strangely comforting ...
Contemplating A Second String
A few minutes before leaving the office this evening I was invited for a chat on the floor below. Without getting into too much detail, an offer was made to ...
Bioshock
After the children had gone to bed last night, I started playing Bioshock on the XBox 360. It’s the first time I have played any kind of story based video ga...
An Hour For Free
After waking up this morning, and wondering why the alarm hadn’t gone off on my phone (I set it as an insurance policy to deliver Miss 10 to rugby practice o...
Old Video Games
I took the kids to the used video game store today, and we went a bit mad. I say “a bit mad”, but in reality we spent the approximate cost of one next gen ga...
Heres The Thing About Tumblr
You scroll through the feed, thousands of miles away from hundreds of people you will never meet, and see people you might become friends with - but they are...
Single Handed For The Weekend
I got home from work this evening, and while dealing with the firstsink full of washing up, beforedinner, my other half informed me that she’s off to the coa...
A Smile From A Stranger
The office where I work is in the depths of a country estate - the building is “The Old Estate Office” - and my journey to work on the mountain bike takes me...
Weird Dreams
I had the by far the strangest dream in quite some time last night - and it’s content was controversial enough that I can’t easily share any of it. Let’s jus...
The One Where Dinner Descended Into Yet Another Fight
Everything was going so well - I got home after a ridiculous day at work that I can’t write anything about, got the first round of washing up out of the way,...
Remembering When Things Were A Thing
One of the main reasons I moved this blog to Blogger is because I’m less likely to tinker with it. Less likely to dick around with the mechanics of it. Less ...
From There To Here A Personal Blogging Journey
For me it all began in the late 1980s, with the explosion of Compuserve and AOL, and the lowering of the bar to a point where everybody could understand how ...
15 Minutes
I have 15 minutes until a conference call starts. I can’t really do anything productive in those 15 minutes, so guess what - you’re going to get a high speed...
Why Is It Called Recursive Words
While cycling home from work, I began thinking about all sorts of random crap - as you do - and while waiting for a line of cars at a junction to attempt to ...
The Wordpress Spam Nightmare
I decided to move my blog back to WordPress at lunchtime, and unwittingly came across the spam bug in WordPresswhen you re-publish a post that has previously...
Security Through Obscurity
One of my oldest and closest friends on the internet commented on a recent post that all we invariably share via public blog posts is a “highlight reel” of o...
And The Pretty People Smiled
While leaving the supermarket yesterday afternoon, attempting to push a metric ton of groceries towards the car-park while flanked by my other half and sever...
The One Where My Little Corner Of The Internet Came Screeching To Ajuddering Halt
While browsing the internet this afternoon I tripped over a Tumblr post from a distant friend that brought the world to a screeching halt. I’m not going to n...
The Weekend Arrives
Another week has passed. Another week just like the week before. The weekend ahead is just like last weekend. I may as well re-title my life “Groundhog” some...
Without Touching The Ground
I’m aware that I haven’t written anything for a few days, and I’m not entirely sure I have anything worth sharingI’m not about to let that stop me. I’m a bit...
Remembering The First Nablopomo
At lunchtime today I stumbled upon a photo of a friend that died several years ago. She was driving early in the morning with her son in the back of the car,...
The One Where They Didnt Have Any Cheese
Last week we got caught in the classic parent trap, where we ran out of arms, legs, and time. While I finished my work in the study (working from home that d...
Where Did This Week Go
I seem to remember stopping at some point towards the tail end of last week, and wondering where on earth the week had gone. It’s happening again. It’s only ...
Waiting And Watching
I’m waiting for a server at the other end of the country to finish churning through data, and spit out an “I’m finished” message without barfing it’s guts up...
The Genesis And Evolution Of Social Platforms
The birth of new social platforms on the internet is interesting. Where the natural world stumbled upon the seemingly miraculous mix of ingredients and proce...
Sunday Happened
I’m trying hard to write more regularly at the momentto get back to the person that used to write such inventive rubbish a few years ago. I look back at thos...
Saturday Morning Rain
There is a mist fallingit was forecast, and is no doubt doing it’s best to destroy our lofty plans to take the telescope out tonight to look at the moon with...
Morning In London
After falling out of bed, having a shower, and making breakfasts and lunches for the children yesterday morning, I slipped my suit on, and jumped on a train ...
Grid Autosport On Xbox Live
I played Grid Autosport (car racing game on the XBox 360) online for the first time last night.I hardly ever play games onlineor games at all, really. Earlie...
Exploring Ello
At some point last week a new social network appeared on the internet called Ello. I learned about it after digging aninvite from my junk mailwhich caused im...
A Grown Up Night Out
Last night we escaped from the house for a few hours to attend the local radio station’s awards eveninga ball held at the big hotel on the edge of town. I wo...
Publishing A Half Serious Blog
It’s been a while since I unleashed the nerdy side of my brain on this blog.
Thursday Morning Brain Dump
I know I was buried under a mountain of workearlier in the week, but how on earth is it Thursday already ? Did the first part of the week happen at all ?For ...
Out Of The Woods
After a seemingly endless struggle over the last few days, I can finally see the top of the mountain I’ve been climbing. I can finally begin to relax. While ...
Days Without End
Each day seems to be running into the next at the moment. While occasionally I have long train journey adventures to recount, or distant hotels to document l...
Escaping The Slings And Arrows
Today was a day to forget. A day where you run like mad, and get nowhere. A day where you turn every corner, chase down every dark alleyand you always end up...
The Writing Corollary
Something occurred to me earlier. When you’re young, you want to write something, but have no life experience to communicate. When you’re older, you finally ...
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
Coming up with unique or original titles for posts is really hard. I’ve taken today’s title from the book I bought a copy of while queueing in HMV to buy in-...
Recursion
I’m not sure if anybody noticed (I know at least one person did), but I closed this blog down for about a weekset it to private, and wandered away. I had all...
Friday Afternoon
I didn’t really take a lunch break earlier, so I’m taking a late break and emptying my head into the keyboard. I’m trying out a text editor thing called “Dra...
From Android To Windows Phone
After watching the battery on my Samsung Galaxy S3 run down to perhaps 20% by late evening without actively using itto do anything a few days ago, I finally ...
Hitting Rock Bottom
The title of this post is a little disingenuous reallybecause in this case “Rock Bottom” was the title ofa music festival happening in a neighbouring village...
Quiet Friday
It’s the final day off for meif the kids sort themselves out (get dressed, wash their faces, brush their teeth, brush their hair), we might head on the bikes...
The Third Place
I created a “kind of professional” blog to go alongside this one, which kind of results in having three blogs now (this, Tumblr, and the new one). Yes, I am ...
Recounting The Week After The Worlds End
I keep falling into the trap of only writing when I have “something to say” worth sharing. The problem is the “worth sharing” bitbecause it’s based on what I...
A Personal History Of Video Games
Listed below are the video games I have owned over the years. Feel free to join in and list the ones you have had, and your memories of them.Atari 2600My bro...
Strange Dreams
I was in a field similar to the playing fields of the primary school I went to, and people were kicking footballs aroundkicking them high in the air. I remem...
Why I Wont Be Doing The Als Ice Bucket Challenge
Lots of high profile celebrities have done it. Lots of Z-list celebrities have done it. Lots of my friends have done it. I won’t be doing it, and here’s why;...
Rainy Days And Other Peoples Children
Today is a bank holiday in the UK, so I have the day offwhich is a good job, because it’s tipping down with rain, and I feel dreadful. Just to add to the che...
Writing The Anti Blog
Blogging used to be about sharing your thoughts, the story of your day, your hopes, your dreams, and so on. If you pay any attention to the “professional blo...
Back To Basics
It’s been several days since I last wrote anything here, and I think I know whyI’m trying too hard. Rather than just empty my head into here at the end of ea...
Whos Madonna
One of Miss 14’s friends stayed for dinner this evening, and we somehow ended up talking about the media, celebrities, and music. A derogatory comment was ma...
Halt And Catch Fire
I heard about “Halt and Catch Fire” while walking to work a couple of months ago. The crank decided to snap on my mountain bike, and the 3 mile walk each way...
Betas
I finally finished watching the first season of the Amazon funded TV show “Betas” this evening. As the titles rolled I headed to the web on my phone, to find...
Remind Me What Normal Feels Like
The various things going wrong with me have started to get me down. I’ve now had the chest infection for three weeks, and a cold for a week. The stiff neck i...
Taking A Break From Microsoft Malware Hell
Yesterday morning I made a coffee and ambled into the study (read: junk room) to catch up on the social networks, and noticed an icon had changed in the star...
Tumblr
I was shocked, stunned and amazed to discover this morning that a fellow blogger had no idea what Tumblr is (actually, I’m using a fair amount of unwarranted...
Remembering Robin Williams
I’m going to fly in the face of the countless blogs, editorials, think pieces, and soapbox psychologists. Rather than climb on their bandwagon and preach all...
Most Software Developers Are Rubbish
Before anybody throws their hands in the air and starts ranting, I’m going to include myself in the rubbish pile, and I’m also going to make the whole title ...
The Truth About Kickstarter
Some time ago I created a social blogging platform on the internetmore as an experiment than anything elseto see how well a mashup of Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJo...
Alone In An Infinite Crowd
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...
Broken Bones Chest Infections And Distractions
The broken toe is slowly getting better. It’s taped to the toe next to it at the moment, and while it’s not doing the “stabbing pain” thing that it delighted...
Threading The Vacation Through The Eye Of A Broken Needle
Yes, the title is crypticbut all will become clear if you continue to read. I thought about distilling our adventures down to a list of bullets, but then rea...
The Social Internet Isnt Social
I started writing a regular blog perhaps 12 years ago. Back when I started the only real option was to publish it yourselfeither as static HTML pages, or wit...
From Kerbal To The Mun
This is the last post about Kerbal Space Program, honest.Today I spent my lunchbreak illustrating a mission to the “Mun” (the moon) from the home planet “Ker...
One More Day
Tomorrow will be my last day in the office for a week or so. I’m burning through the remains of this year’s holiday allocation in one go (our holidays reset ...
Last Day Of School
Our eldest daughter went to the end of year school party last night. She doesn’t typically “do” parties, and had a pretty comical anxiety attack before leavi...
The One Where A Kerbal Rescue Mission Takes Half The Night
You know I wrote yesterday about a life eatinggame called “Kerbal Space Program”, and it’s ability to deprive you of sleep? I had three hours sleep last nigh...
Orbital Rendezvous
About a month ago I downloaded a “casual” game onto my computer to play at lunchtimes called “Kerbal Space Program”. In the game you take charge of the space...
Waking Up Before The Alarm Clock
I had to go on a long railway journey across the country today, which meant getting up at 5am this morning. I had all the intentions in the world of having a...
Unfriended
After clicking send on the tenth email of Monday morning I had a swig of coffee, opened a new tab in the browser, and jumped down the Tumblr rat hole for a f...
Recursive Words
Having nothing to do on a Sunday morning is dangerous. You get up, have a wash, make breakfast for the kids, and then set about dismantling your online exist...
Five Little Ladies
When I left work yesterday evening a memory flashed through my mind about our middle girl inviting two friends for a sleepover. I guess somewhere in a forgot...
An Elegant Weapon For A More Civilised Age
This blog post isn’t going to be about what you think. Sorry to ruin your journey here if you were hoping for some kind of Star Wars rat hole blog post obses...
All Quiet On The Western Front
I woke up at 7am this morning, and discovered that the bed was strangely empty. Slowly the truly bizarre dream I had been having about trying to clean up an ...
Nanowrimo Nablopomo Old Friends And Responsibility
Back in 2006 Eden Kennedy started “National Blog Posting Month”a lesser version of “National Novel Writing Month”. While “NaNoWriMo” challenged participants ...
Whats That Whistling Sound
Oh, I know. That sound is another week whistling past. I can’t believe it’s Wednesday already.
Returning To Tumbling Waters
While quietly raging against the world and it’s dog a few weeks ago I walked away from Tumblr (again). I’ve been a member on-and-off since the beginning in 2...
Boys Night Out
A few weeks ago I received an invitation from a good friend on Facebook to do exactly what my other half has been suggesting for some timehave a “boys night ...
Unshakeable Belief In The Tooth Fairy
I drew the “tuck the children into bed” straw this evening. After finding the antibiotics and nurofen for Miss 10, who has been very ill indeed since the wee...
Sick Child Day Off Internet
We spent an hour or so last night trying to bring the temperature of our middle girl down to avoid her spontaneously combusting. After taking antibiotics, si...
A Robotic Future
Over the years I have owned and used just about every major mobile phone operating systemvarious versions of Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, and Windows Phone. ...
One Sided
I had an interestingand very shortconversation with somebody online this evening that I had considered a friend over the last year. The conversation more or ...
Single Handed
I was going to write a rather dull post titled “Nothing to Report”, and drone on endlessly about the mundanity (is that a real word?) of my life at the momen...
Frustrations
A pattern from my personal life seems to be repeating itself in my professional life at the moment, and I’m incredibly annoyed about it.
Obstacles And Opportunities
It occurred to me this evening that the frustrations I often faceboth professionally, and personally, are really frustrations with those who see obstacles, r...
Next Steps
Following on with the plan to turn my involvement in “the social internet” around, and to post when I have something to say, rather than to say something, I ...
Departing Tumblr
After joining Tumblr a few months after their inception in 2007, I finally decided to shutter the account today. After spending the last 7 years posting thou...
The Remains Of The Day
After the children had gone to bed last night, I sat in the garden with my other half, enjoying a few minutes peace and quiet with a bottle of wine and our t...
50 Likes 50 Followers
I must be doing something right with this whole blogging escapadealthough that being said, I have no excuses; I have been writing online since the idea of “b...
Scrivener
I caved this evening and bought Scrivener for the Macbook. I’ve heard about it for years on the internetAndy Ihnatko has mentioned it on various podcastsand ...
Inset Days Ftw
While writing the title of this post, it occurred to me that I used to have real trouble assigning words to the letters “FTW”probably because the acronym is ...
Amazon And The Publishers
While walking in to work this week, I listened to “This Week in Tech”, and rather than bang on about the various net neutrality issues that will likely kill ...
Growing More Distant From The Social Internet
Over the past few weeks I have sensed an ever increasing gulf between myself and the “open social internet”by that, I mean the public posts on Facebook, Tumb...
Three Days In Norwich
For the past week I have been working on-site, “teaching” professionals to do clever stuff. I’m being deliberately vague, because I can’t imagine you’rereall...
Non Contributors
I’ve noticed something that is becoming more prevalent on the internet, and I’m finally writing about it.
The One Where I Fell Through The Cracks
For the past several days all I seem to have done is “exist”doing chores around the house in the absence of the rest of the household (save for our eldest da...
Journey To Norwich
After walking three miles to work, spending two hours there, and walking three miles home (not the best bit of planning I’ve ever done), I gathered my variou...
In Search Of Volunteers
I have been tinkering withwetheusers.netover the last few daysfixing bugs, and polishing rough edges. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, “We The Use...
10 Minutes
I have 10 minutes left of the day before I head off towards home. 10 minutes to empty my head. Here goes.
Elsewhere
Do you ever have days when you get up, go through the motions of going to work, but your entire head is elsewhere?This morning I made bacon rolls for everybo...
The One Where Eurovision Turned Into A Farce
We got in from the girls dance show late on Saturday night, and sat down with a huge proportion of the rest of the nation to join in the annual idiotic spect...
The Darkest Timeline
After spending months chasing my own tale, this weekend I had the chance to kick back and catch up with the internetand was dismayed (although not surprised)...
Olaf And The Girl Who Couldnt Skip
For the past several weeks we have had the soundtrack to the movie “Frozen” pretty much on repeat in our houseand the reason presented itself on stage this e...
Broken Bikes Podcasts And Dance Shows
Nothing of consequence seems to have happened over the last few daysbut I’m not about to let that stop me from writing endlessly about it.
Reticulating Splines
It’s lunchtime right now, so I guess I can arguably spend some time “watching the world go by”but seeing as I’m on the first floor, looking out of the window...
The Loneliness Of The Internetwork
While catching up with the rag-tag band of people I follow on Tumblr earlier this evening, I was struck by their apparent loneliness, and couldn’t help wonde...
The Cookie Choice Corollary
I just walked into the office and interrupted a ridiculous converstion where two of my co-workers were trying to decide which cookies to buy from town. I cau...
Lunchtime
It’s lunchtime in the officegiven that I have nothing better to do, I could get on with my work, but messages to the contrary seem to be plastered all over t...
Parents Versus Children
While the rest of the household scraped themselves out of bed this morning, I headed for the local rugby club with our middle girl for her final training ses...
Walking To Work
For the past several days I have been walking to work, on account of snapping the crank on my bike in half. I would like to think my undiscovered superpowers...
The Liebster Award
Having resurrected this blog from the halls of anonymity at the weekend, I was shocked, stunned and amazed to discover that somebodyobviously of wonderful ju...
Triggers Toothbrush
I just had perhaps the most bizarre conversation with our eldest daughter in quite some time. We will try to ignore that I met her at the foot of the stairs ...
Stopping And Starting
Following months of travelling to distant destinations with work this year, and scrambled days at home washing clothes and re-packing cases, I began to quest...
It Feels Really Strange
I have been back in the office this weekwellsince Wednesday, when I returned after having time off at Easter. Even being back here a few days feels really, r...
The One Where Miss 9 Finally Learned To Swim
Today will go down on the record as the day Miss Nine finally conquered swimming. She has been swimming (head down, torpedo like) since last summer, but has ...
The One Where The Children Filled The Bath With Green Goo
I interrupted a game of Mario Party on the Wii this morning to ask our younger children (who are on their last day off school) to get dressed. After a few mi...
Disappearing
For the past several days a little thought has niggled at the back of my brain, labelled “should write a blog post at some point”. I used to write nearly eve...
Easter Sunday Morning
We have been up since 7am, when our younger children awoke. The next ten minutes were spent running around the garden like idiots following a treasure trail ...
An Evening With Friends
We spent the evening eating pizza, drinking wine, and catching up with good friends that live across the way. The children played video and board games toget...
When Winning Is Losing
I gather from one of the posts I just saw onTumblr recentlythat somebody had either won a lottery, or landed a huge contract at work. It brought to mind some...
Sunday At Legoland
We tipped outselves out of bed early on Sunday morning, packed our bags with all manner of snacks, and set out for Legoland to celebrate the new “9 year old”...
Final Night At The Holiday Inn
Tonight is my the final night at the Holiday Inn Expressperhaps for some time. After returning from the office this evening I got changed, packed clothes int...
Unable To Switch Off
I walked into the office at 8:45 this morning, and basically didn’t leave my seat again until 7pm this evening. Building software and configuring systems in ...
Sunday Night In Leeds
It’s late on Sunday night, and I find myself in Leeds once more. In months past I would have described the journey herethrough London, and northwardas some k...
Brain Dump
It’s Friday evening, and the weekend is upon us. The kids are watching a movie in the lounge on “Amazon Prime Instant”, whatever the hell that isI just downl...
The Holiday Mirrors Reality
While flicking through the channels late last night, I discovered “The Holiday” was on, and given that I’ll watch anything with Kate Winslet in, that this is...
The One Where I Fought Imaginary Fires For 12 Hours
In a somewhat fortuitous turn of events I chose to work from home today. Fortune favoured me not because I had the motive, and opportunity to purchase and co...
The Best Of Times The Worst Of Times
The saga that this weekend became began late on Friday night when I arrived home from a 5 hour train journey to find the kitchen trashed, and almost every ro...
The One Where The Nasty Lady Got Payback
My most recent journey from one end of the country to the other last night via the nation’s railway network went almost entirely without incident. I say “alm...
The London Adventure Comes To An End For Now
I think the universe realised that the London public transport infrastructure had given me far too easy a ride for the last few months, and spun the bottle t...
One More Day In London
I have one more day remaining in London. One day left of the current contract. In a bizarre twist of fate, the person I have been both working with, and ment...
Being There Without Being There
Our eldest (Miss 13) has gone on a school trip to an amusement park today. I got her up, organised, made sure she had everything she needed, and walked to th...
The One Where I Grew Sick And Tired Of Commuting
You would think, after spending the best part of two years working in London through 2007 and 2008, that I would fit back into the world of the commutera wor...
Software Development Prejudice And Sexism
I happened to read the story at TechCrunch last night about Julie Ann Horvath leaving GitHub amid a (media inflated) storm of controversy. Lots of potentiall...
There And Back
Another Monday, and another journey into London before most people have scraped themselves out of bed. I’m not entirely sure how I made it through today with...
Emptying My Head
I need to get back into the habit of writing posts where I just empty my head into the keyboard. I used to do it as naturally as breathing, but as the years ...
The Importance Of Prime Numbers
I completely forgot about “Pi Day”. It’s all a load of numerology rubbish anywaythe date coincided with the sequence of numbers in the decimal presentation o...
Another Four Day Stretch In London
Before I get started on yet another head emptying episode, I would just like to comment that tea is rubbish as a stimulant. After charging home from London t...
Tumbling Down The Rabbit Hole
It all started innocently enough. Given that the guy I have been working with in London was working from home, there was no reason for me to make the journey...
From Ubuntu To Debian And Back Again
I’m sure the title of this post on it’s own will dissuade most people from immediately skipping past it (sarcasm fully intended)and given the stupendous numb...
Another Week Another City
At the time of writing, the clock is rapidly heading towards 11pm, and I’m sitting in the study at home with an empty wine glass, knowing I should probably b...
Bringing My Life Back Online
I arrived home at about 8:30pm last night after another five hours aboard a succession of trains. While we all like to complain about the smallest of interru...
Last Night In Leeds
The last few days have turned into a blur of complexity, frustration, elation, and software development done in full view of a room full of clients.
Crossing Paths
After a long day spent untangling requirements, building workflows, and bashing my head against a boardroom desk, this evening broke the monotony somewhata c...
Laughing Uproariously With The Most Annoying Man In The World
I’m sitting in the lobby of the hotel with a glass of cider. The same pretty businesswoman is holding court in the center of the lobby with her co-workers as...
Dinner For One
Spending your birthday on your own, with nobody else knowing is a very strange experienceperhaps more so if your normal world is a family home, full of chaos...
Five Hours And Five Days
I’m sitting on board the 6:18 departure from Kings Cross to Leeds. I think this train arrives in Leeds at about 9pmI’m not checking because that will drain t...
The One Where The Weekend Never Happened
Before I drift into a nonsensical discussion about reality, causality, parallel universes, and all sorts of other clap-trap, ofcourse the weekend happened. I...
Unblogging
I’m going to start a new movement on the internet. It’s not going to be anything big, grand, or visionary. It’s going to be about not doing thingsnot trying ...
Surrounded By Tea Snobs
I like a cup of tea as much as the next personand it turns out that’s quite a lot more than most, given that I’m English, and was brought up with the cultura...
Everything Is Awesome And Nobody Is Happy
I showed my co-workers the Louis C K clip on YouTube the other day, where he berates the current generation for expecting everything to be handed to them on ...
Ubuntu Linux
Given that I work for a Microsoft partner in the daytime, immersed in the worlds of Windows 8, .
Preparing To Head North Again
On Sunday evening I will make the all-too-familiar journey to the train station, and purchase a return ticket to Leeds. The hotel is already booked, and I’ll...
Switching Off
After spending all day with my head buried in hilariously complex programming to force computers to do something dreamed up by managers at some far flung com...
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...
Abstraction Breeds Complexity
I have been working on some code today to essentially mirror the contents of a database into a number of lists in SharePoint. Normally this wouldn’t be that ...
Sunday Morning
It’s Sunday Morning, and I’m wondering what the day will bring. Our middle girl has gone to a rugby match, and our youngest is barraging me with requests to ...
The Windows Phone Surprise
After making our eldest daughter put up with a “Samsung Galaxy Y” smartphone for the last 18 months, I finally made good on a recent promise, and replaced it...
That Thing That You Do
Although not technically the “first” post here, I thought it might be interesting for others (oka very few others) to go into a little more depth than I have...
An Introduction Of Sorts
It would seem appropriate to tell new readers a bit about myself. Of course this is easier to say than do (you suddenly become very introspective, and start ...
Hello World
Starting a new blog or website places a certain amount of pressure on the author to provide some kind of spectacularly worthy, interesting, or thought provok...
The Long Road
The endless travelling has come to an end for a few days. I’ve been wondering how best to organise the avalanche of stories, thoughts, and recollections abou...
The Story Of Us
Today is Valentines Day. Given that everybody gets a free pass to be as sentimental as they want today, I thought I might share how I met my other half.
Stopping For Breath
Another week has passed. Another week without writing. Another week filled with trains, crowds, cities, code, computers, stress, and unimaginable tiredness.
One Day Only
I have been back in the office today for the first time in weeks. Waking up at 7am this morning was really rather wonderful. You quickly forget that the morn...
Death Of A Friend
While reading through the recent posts of friends on the internet a little earlier today, I tripped over a cryptic reference to somebody I knew, and began a ...
Stop The World
At some point over the next few weeks I’m almost certainly going to meet myself travelling in the opposite direction somewhere. Before you start, I know it w...
Falling Off The Radar Between London And Leeds
The weeks are slowly turning into a blur at the momentand given that I’m still suffering with the remnants of tonsilitis, the continual travelling and hotel ...
To The North
After dosing myself up with all manner of medication over the last few days, I had to make a decision on travelling for work this morning. Going against the ...
An Adventure At The British Museum
Yesterday morning I dragged our middle daughter out of bed, had a quick breakfast, got wrapped up in warm clothes, and set out towards London together to vis...
Reflections On The City
It’s funny how you set out on a journey with all sorts of plans, and then realise after a little while that those plans have somehow been torn up, burned, an...
One Day Down
My phone erupted into life at 6am, and was met by an incredibly badly coordinated hand. After a few minutes of watching the seconds tick by and thinking abou...
The Victorian Adventure Begins
Tomorrow morning I will fall out of bed at 6am, get dressed, have a wash, and wander back along the same paths I walked for two years to the train station, h...
Back To Work And Thoughts About London
Given that today was the first day back in the office after a couple of weeks away to gorge on food, and drink ourselves into oblivion, it hasn’t been too ba...
Random Five For Friday
It’s been a while since I did a “random thought” post, so this seems like as good a chance as any.
Time To Fly Time To Fight
I have no idea what quality of writing might leave my fingers this evening. My head is stuffed with ibuprofen, and I’ve eaten an entire packet of cough lozen...
New Years Day
At some point yesterday eveningin spite of feeling like hell, and dosing myself up on ibuprofen every few hoursI decided “what the hell”, had a wash, got cha...
2013
New Years Eve
So here we areTuesday 31st December, 2013. The end of another year, and everybody seems to be wilfully entering the mass hysteria of attaching some kind of m...
Skating Laughter Fear Anger And Fury
Our younger daughters have been going stir crazy hanging around the house following Christmas, so I finally did something about it yesterday morning.”Get you...
The Days Between Christmas And New Year
I always feel the few days between Christmas and New Year are a little disconnected from the rest of the year. Perhaps this year that sense is heightened bec...
Friday On Call
Today I am “on call” for work. I can’t complain, because I requested the entire Christmas period offtwo weeksand have only ended up having to cover support c...
The Eternal Optimist
While talking to my other half over a drink late last night, we joked about my optimistic outlook oneverything. At the time we were only joking, but when I t...
Christmas Day
I woke suddenly this morning, and took a few moments to gather my senses. I could hear Lady Gaga coming from the children’s bedroom, singing “Bad Romance”. A...
The Desolation Of Smaug
We just got back from taking the children to see the afternoon showing of “The Desolation of Smaug” at the cinema. I’m sure everybody and their dog has writt...
Never Say Never
I almost walked away from blogging this year. More than once. Thankfully, due to the hilariously low number of people that read the words I publish, I don’t ...
Alone On The Internet Ocean
Sometimes the internet can feel very lonely.
The Road Less Travelled
Sometimes, quite by chance, fueled by just the right amount of wine, just the right amount of stress, and just the right sentiments in a movie or book, we qu...
Adrift
I have been sitting in the dark with the faint glow of the laptop screen painted across my fingers for the last fifteen minutes. Rather than write anything I...
A Long Way From Home
After surviving a five hour train journey that took me into the bowels of London and back out to head north for two hours, I’m sitting in a hotel room 200 mi...
Simplification
Given how busy I have been in recent weeks and months, and given the proliferation of places I “exist” online, I’m thinking about killing off the written blo...
Burning The Candle At Both Ends
Its 1:18am, and I’m sitting in a hotel bed a hundred miles or so away from home. My days have been filled with teaching people clever stuff, and my evenings ...
Juggling Too Many Balls
Most people look forward to the weekend with a mixture of relief and optimism. My recent experience has been somewhat different, because invariably the two d...
Home From The Western Front
After a couple of days pretending to be a knowledgeable consultant about all manner of clever things, I am home this eveningnot before something of an advent...
Running Like Mad
The days and nights are running into each other at the moment, but it’s a situation of my own choosing so I can’t really complain. It would help if I didn’t ...
Burning The Candle At Both Ends
After spending the entire day at work fighting with mountains of source code, I returned home to begin all over again. As mentioned a little while ago, I hav...
Starring In My Own Truman Show
While running errands this morning, and attempting to make my way to rugby with the children, I started to suspect a number of camera crews were hidden on ea...
Back Yard Astronomy
After promising myself not to post photographs in the blog, I couldn’t resist sharing this one.
Casting A Wider Net
For the last year or so I have only been following “friends” on Twitterpeople I have come to know over the years that are either real world friends, or that ...
Friday Cannot End Quickly Enough
I can’t believe this week is almost over already. It seems like every day has whistled by, and every evening has been chewed up by something or other. Maybe ...
Working Through Lunch
I’ve been working on a fairly intractable round of changes and bug fixes to a software development project this morningthe same project that caused me to go ...
Visitors From Another World
Many years ago I picked up a copy of a book called “Communion” by Whitley Strieber. It told the (true) story of a series of strange episodes in his lifemany ...
Theme Hatred
You know the one where you choose a theme for your blog pretty much at random, because you can’t find anything you like, and you can’t justify spending any m...
The One Where I Forgot Nablopomo Nanowrimo And Movember
I completely forgot NaBloPoMo (“National Blog Posting Month”) was happening. I’m SUCH an idiot, it’s untrue. I just checked back through the last few posts h...
Headaches Rain And Programming
I’ve been working flat out on a programming project at work all morning (I’ll spare you the details), and now find myself wondering where the morning went. P...
Not Trying On Purpose
While cycling to work this morning through rain that was worse than I thought it was going to be, I started thinking about bloggingas I usually doand why I m...
Fireworks Retro Themes And Late Night Rambles
We took the kids out to see a firework display tonightour part in celebrating either the capture, or the hubris (depending on your thoughts about it) of Guy ...
Where The Hell Did He Go
It occurred to me this morning (when somebody kindly let me know about the nuclear spam bomb I inadvertently set of off on Saturday afternoon) that I didn’t ...
Oops
While monkeying with WordPress on Saturday, it appears that I inadvertantly spammed everybody following me to death. Something in the order of 175 notificati...
Tired And Hungry
A little while ago the sky darkened so much overhead that I began looking for “The Dark Mark” in the clouds. For a few minutes rain fell like it had only jus...
Winter Is Coming
This post is not a homage to the houses of Baratheon, Stark, Lannister and Targaryen (although I wish it was)it is in reference to the weather changing drama...
Being Lonesome George
The rest of this post is going to make little sense if you don’t know who “Lonesome George” was, so I’m going to give you the background first.”Lonesome Geor...
The Universe Slows Down On Friday
I wonder if any famous (or secret) mad scientists have ever measured the amount of time Friday takes to pass by. I’m pretty sure today is taking longer than ...
Getting Back On The Freelance Web Development Horse
I’ve decided to throw my hat back into the freelance web development ring. Just a few projects in my spare time. While the money will be nice, the real purpo...
Unimaginable Complexity
I wrote an insane chunk of programming todaywhile sickand am quietly pleased with myself. Just the fact that I was able to wrap my head around a multi-dimens...
Monday Can Go Suck It
I haven’t taken my temperature todayprobably for the same reason I rarely take tablets, or any kind of medication for anything really. I justknowI feel like ...
An Experiment In Cross Posting
For the next few weeks I am going to cross post to WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and LiveJournal. I’m not going to do any clever analysis of the platforms, but ...
Falling From The Knife Edge
It is in my nature to do whatever needs to be done to make those around me happy. You might liken it to walking along the edge of a knifewhere nobody really ...
And Then There Were Five
Miss Nine is home from her school trip. She spent the last week at an outward bound center, several hundred miles from home, with the rest of her school year...
Man Down
The virus that has swept our house for the last few days caught up with me this morning. Given that the team in the office is relatively small at times, it m...
We Could Power Monsteropolis
While walking home from town with our eldest daughter last weekend, she suddenly stopped, and crouched down to retrieve something from the side of the footpa...
Morning In London
This morning began a little before 6am, when my body clock anticipated the alarm clock by a few minutesit’s funny how it does that. While (I thought) quietly...
A Week Without Miss 9
A little voice crept across the landing this morning, and called outuncertainly to wake usafter waiting for my eyes to focus on the radio alarm clock, I told...
Larry Crowne
While flicking channels earlier this evening, and contemplating turning in for the night, I stumbled upon the opening scenes of the movie “Larry Crowne”, and...
Old Friends And Past Adventures
Memory is a curious thing. A single thread pulls away at a seam on the edge of your recollection, and before you know it swathes of past adventures are falli...
Words And Pictures
I’ve been wondering how much benefit photographs really bring to a “journal” style blog. Are they really necessary?At Tumblr you almosthave to post photos to...
The Apocalyptic Rage Of An 8 Year Old
While attempting to shepherd our daughters towards their beds at a somewhat acceptable time yesterday evening, the balance of power began an imperceptible sh...
Out Of Sorts
For the past few weeks I have struggled to find anything worth sharing with the small number that continue to read. In the quiet moments of the day, I have w...
Counting Friends
Last night we headed out with friends to a big hotel on the outskirts of town, ate a wonderful meal, applauded the local radio station awards, drank rather a...
The Benefits Of Cycling
I just came across this list of “benefits” of regular cycling while looking at another website, so thought I would go through them, and comment.1. Cycling gi...
Haircuts And Mobile Phone Hell
Before arriving at the office this morning, I delivered myself to the local barbers in the faint hope that the picture of gorgeousness that cut my hair last ...
Turning Thirteen
Our eldest daughter becomes a teenager this weekand celebrated her birthday a few days early by being taken shopping with her friends, and having a sleepover...
Unsuccessfully Unblogging
A little while ago I wrote a post called “Unblogging”a call to arms against the seemingly endless army of SEO experts, “professional” bloggers, and “social m...
Wrecking Ball
While searching for something new to listen to last night, I tripped over the biggest elephant in the internet room in recent memory”Wrecking Ball”the next r...
Chess
I don’t remember learning to play chess.
Truthful Tuesday
Earlier this year I lost the best friend I ever had. We would catch up with each other online every few days, share good times and bad, and confide thoughts ...
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...
When Candybar Phones Ruled The Earth
Late last night my pocket began singing to me. Given that I had not been drinking, I wondered if I was going mad. A far more plausible explanation provided a...
Revisiting The Raspberry Pi
The “Raspberry Pi” is a $35 computer that has been developed over the last few years to be sold into education, and the developing world. It uses off the she...
Katy Perry Roar
While listening to the radio this evening, I caught the end of the charts, and heard that Katy Perry is number one this week with “Roar”. A secret part of me...
100 Followers At Wordpress
I know it looks narcissistic to post about a particular number of followers being crossed, but given the number of times I have switched blog platforms over ...
Saturday Morning 8Am
The weekend is here, and the entire family seems to be exhaling, and relaxing into it. The children have only been back at school for a few days, but lurchin...
Somethings Got To Give
I am in a blogging black hole of my own making. Written posts go to WordPress. Words are cross posted to LiveJournal by hand. Photos go to Instagram. Photos ...
Back To School
The alarm clock woke me with the local radio station at 7 this morning. After a few moments daydreaming, and staring aimlessly at the ceiling, my other half ...
Forcing Change
Now the media has finally turned it’s attention to far more important things (like which countries are going to dare help Syria), I just wanted to say one th...
Swindon
Tonight finds me holed up high above the ground in the Holiday Inn Express, in Swindon town centre. Originally I planned to commute to and from the client si...
Camping With Friends
The remains of the school holidays were burned up this year with a group camping expedition organised by my better half, and several close friends. If the ho...
One Post At A Time
Once upon a time I could conjure words onto the screen as readily as water comes from a tap. They would flow, splashing across the page, dripping from one id...
Getting Back On The Horse
I’m back in the office todayfor the first time in several weeks. I’m not sure how I feel about it at the moment. On the way in this morning there was a creep...
Disconnected
Over the last few months I seem to have been edging slowly away from the online community. I wouldn’t perhaps describe it as “not trying”, as much as “not ca...
Sunday Morning With Sonic
The morning has gone something like this so far; get out of bed, shower, brush teeth, get dressed, wander down the road to buy milk, make coffee and toast, m...
The Doctor
While walking into town a little while ago, I passed two elderly ladies, chatting in the middle of the footpath. One was perhaps 75 years old, and the other ...
Every Wedding Ring Tells A Story
This is my wedding ring. I would like to say it was forged by goblin silversmiths in the fires of Mount Doom, but that wouldn’t be entirely true. It was actu...
Brain Dump
I’ve fallen completely off the blogging wagon in recent months, and I’m not entirely sure why. I’m resisting the temptation to explore the reasons, because i...
Snail Mail
After pedaling through driving rain on the way home tonight, I arrived home and met a tangled puzzle of childrens mountain bikes, heaped just inside the gard...
Reticulating Splines
If you’re wondering what on earth this post is all about, join the clubI don’t have a clue either. The title is a reference to the loading screen of Sim City...
Days Slip By
I took this week off worka gap opened in the calendar, I had days to use up, and I lunged at it. When the email confirmation arrived I was more surprised tha...
The Connection Corollary
While sitting here upon my Batman like perch, high above the social networks watching the posts drift past, I often see familiar shades of angst, loneliness,...
Getting Up Early When You Dont Have To
It’s Sunday morning, and for some reason known only to the depths of my brain, I was awake at 6:45am, and got up. Why is it that on work days, I will stare a...
Truthful Saturday
I’m good at mis-titling memes. That’s not the “truth” I set out to write about though. I’m also good at thread-drift, but that’s not what I was going to writ...
Taking A Stand
I keep reading postsnearly one a day at the momentfrom someone or other stating their “rules” for participation in either a particular social network, or an ...
Contemplating Darkness
While sorting through the various detritus in the study last night (we laughably refer to it as the studyit has more akin with Monica’s junk cupboard in “Fri...
The Girl I Used To Work With
We sat across from each other for the best part of three years. In some ways she reminded me of my younger selfher ability to remember everything, and to wor...
When 2 Hours Take 5
We left a distant client site in searing temperatures at 5pm last night, and set out on the journey homea journey that should have taken 2 hours only it didn...
First New Bicycle
I took our eldest to the bike shop in town yesterday morning to “look” at mountain bikes. She had no idea that I had already agreed a budget, and we might po...
The Weekend Arrives
It doesn’t really feel like the weekend has arrivedmore like I’ve managed to make it to the weekendon my knees, half stumbling, half falling across the line.
That Thing That You Do
Several people have asked what I do for a living recently, and it occurred to me that I very rarely give much away on the social interwebs any moreso I guess...
Better Than Life
It appears the incredibly lazy “journalists” at the Huffington Post just caught up with the series of photos that have been floating around the internet for ...
A Moment Of Clarity
For the last week or so I have been playing with LiveJournalperhaps the “last man standing” of the old blogging platforms. It was there at the start, and it ...
According To Greta
The living room is dark, the patio doors wide open, the house lights off, a fan is forcing air around the room, and a movie is quietly painting light across ...
That Was The Week That Was
I’m not quite sure how I got through this week, but I didor rather all evidence points to the face that today is indeed Friday, I am no longer in the office,...
And The Wheels Keep On Turning
The last few days have felt like I’m stuck in some kind of giant world-machine, swirling around, being thrown from place to place, and never being spat out. ...
The Remains Of The Day
I’m sitting in the study at home, listening to a compilation of soundtrack music from an old TV series called “One Tree Hill”. I’ve never actually seen an ep...
Haircut City
Before dragging myself into work this morning I stopped in town to get my hair chopped off by the prettiest lady possible. Normally this would mean the chain...
The One Where Sunday Ran Me Over Twice
Sunday could have turned out very differently. While my other half went out for the morning with our youngest, I tidied up, washed up, and made lunches for a...
Friends
The local brewery opened it’s doors for it’s bi-annual open weekend this morningand a group of us made our way to it in scorching temperatures to partake of ...
Un Friending
I wonder if the term “un-friending” is in the Oxford English Dictionary yet? Perhaps it should be, given that I felt compelled to un-friend somebody today. A...
Busy Going Nowhere
I seem to have been “off the radar” for months nownot really recording stories and thoughts as I used to. Sure, I’ve experimented with different blogs, diffe...
Monday Should Come With An Escape Plan
At about 6am this morning the sun was shining outside, the sky was blue, and that appeared to be all the encouragement the chickens needed to tell the entire...
The Things We Do To Avoid Being Shouted At
I don’t think it would be entirely innacurate to make the statement “I hate gardening more than anything else in the world”. Actually, there are a few other ...
Winning On Friday
I’m not entirely sure what happened to this week. It started badly, carried on being bad, and has now kind of fizzled out into the weekend (which will in all...
The Start Of Something Marvellously Idiotic
After posting a scruffy cartoon of myself on Tumblr the other day, a couple of friends around the internet banded together into an army of two or three, and ...
Procrastinating With Style
There should be a warning sticker on my forehead when I go to job interviews”if given pens and paper, will get nothing done”. While not entirely true, it’s t...
Living With Psychotic Maniacs
This photo (and the events of this morning, which I will get to later) are all the proof anybody should ever need that cats are not nice, cuddly, friendly cr...
Falling Through The Cracks
This post has sat in an open window on my desktop for over an hour so far. I guess most of the reason it got no further than half a sentence (that I just del...
Secretly Despicable
This afternoon we have secret tickets for a family outing to the cinema to see Despicable Me 2. The children have no idea at allin an outrageous exploitation...
Deep Under The Ground With Minecraft
Welcome to my refuge from the lurking horrors of the dark. It might look like a fairly ordinary bedroom, replete with books, pictures, torches, and a bed, bu...
A Healthy Fear Of Telephones
The telephone just rang on my desk, and a wave of dread crashed across the desk. I picked it up on the second ring, and went through the usual “work greeting...
Philanthropic Thoughts
This morning I have been reading about an organisation called “Code Club”. They back volunteer driven after-school clubs to teach children how to program com...
Is It Really Only Wednesday
I don’t seem to have anything earth shatteringly interesting to write about today, but I’m not about to let that stop me. I need a break from the stuff I’m d...
Apparently We All Suck
Last night our eldest daughter couldn’t find her socks for school. The same socks she had been running around the house flicking her younger sister with, and...
A Victim Of My Own Creation
For the last year or so I have struggled to find a voice while writing blog posts; struggled to find anything that I perceived to be of interest to write abo...
Resurrecting Buried Code
This is one of those rare times when I can talk about what I’m doing at work, although I’m not going to be tremendously specific about it. I’m resurrecting s...
Sunday Ends With Random Thoughts
I’ve installed a new theme into the WordPress blog, and am wondering how much more minimal I can getthis one gets pretty close to the limit. Given that I onl...
Man Of Steel
I had planned on taking our eldest daughter swimming this afternoonbut then the post arrived this morning with her school report, and all plans went out the ...
Please Let Friday Go Well
I was kind of hoping that Friday would redeem the week for me. I can’t say the signs are great, to be honest.
The One Where The Children Remind Me How To Smile
After enduring yet another horrible day at work where I figuratively bit my tongue, and buried all manner of bile and spite, I was kind of looking forward to...
Catching Up With Captain Slow
On the cycle into work this morning I managed to catch up with Captain Slow (the new guy) again. I was in the middle of listening to Carly Rae Jepsen on my m...
A Wanderer Returns
After a couple of days away with work, I return this evening to a mountain of email, a Tumblr dashboard a mile long, a neglected WordPress installation fille...
48 Hours Of Extremes
I sometimes wonder how much I understand about the world. While sailing a fairly straight course over the last few days, chaos has surrounded me.
Troubled
There used to be this little girl that lived across the road from usshe was always out playing in the park, or inviting herself into people’s houses. Her mot...
The Real Life Of A Software Developer
While most think we sit in darkened rooms, surrounded by junk, typing gibberish into screens full of gobbledegookwe do, sometimesthe reality is somewhat diff...
Its Friday Friday Gotta Get Down On Friday
Anybody else remember the Rebecca Black song? Just me? Finebut I bet it’s in your head nowor you’re about to go and search for it on YouTube, which will then...
Transcribed
A few excerpts from today’s brain dump in the notebook while sitting in the cafe next to the park; This little dog is running between the tables, off the lea...
Life The Universe And Everything
After spending the greater part of the afternoon and evening doing chores, cooking on the barbecue, and resolving numerous children’s arguments, I now find m...
The One Where Winning Made Me A Sore Loser
We have had an XBox 360 at home for the last year or so, with an online account so we can access movies and so on. During that time I’ve also played games, b...
Revenge
This afternoon I connected to XBox Live one more time - to “Forza Motorsport 4”. I had never played Forza 4 online either, and thought it might be interestin...
Thursday Thoughts
After a week or so playing with Google+ comments, I’m disconnecting them from the personal blog. They make sense for the techie blog, but not for this.
The One Where We Pretended To Know What We Were Doing
Yesterday evening I raced home from work and set about helping tidy the house up ahead of visitors arriving. Ever since adopting children, from time to time ...
The One Where I Had To Tell Them To Put Their Clothes Back On
Our younger daughters had a friend over last night for a sleepover. A boy. Which was fine. Right up to the point where I discovered a scene straight out of L...
Behold The Archive
After a lunchtime spent hacking around with an export from Google Drive, and a pile of disjointed and horrendously written Python code, I have uploaded the m...
Slowly Burning Out
It’s been a weekend. Really. Those are the only words that come to mind to describe it. I’m not quite sure where it all went (well, I am, but forming the las...
Eve Online
I’m in the process of downloading Eve Online - a massively multiplayer online role playing game where you get to play at being a starship captain. I doubt I ...
Falling Off The Edge Of The World
For the last few days my balance has been all over the place. At first I thought it might have had something to do with going on crazy fairground rides with ...
Returning To Azeroth
I’m installing World of Warcraft on the desktop machines at home. I played it under a free account last year for a while, and although I liked it, didn’t hav...
Rock The Moor
Anyone who follows me on the social networks will have seen the stream of photos appearing throughout yesterday of my family and our friends at a music festi...
Standing On The Precipice
I seem to be an agent of change this week. I deleted my Tumblr and Instagram accounts, removed KIK from my mobile, dived headlong into the newly recharged Go...
A Hummy Kind Of Week
I’m taking the chance to write a few words because I didn’t stop at lunchtime. My bizarre mental ethics are telling me to get on with some work regardless.
While busy monkeying with nothing in particular for the greater part of last night, I happened upon a news article listing announcements from Google IO - the...
Random Thoughts As The Sun Goes Down
A browser tab sat open on a blank blog post for several hours today, and nothing got typed into it. It’s been that kind of day - going further sideways than ...
What Can Happen Will Happen
I got up early this morning, with hopes of an easier morning routine - time to spare - time to sit down - time to eat breakfast with the children. Apparently...
Oatmealing Game Of Thrones
I watched two more episodes of Game of Thrones this evening - almost catching up with the broadcast schedule. We don’t have HBO, or Sky, so our only route to...
Reticulating Splines
In case you were banging your head against the desk, trying to recall where you saw the title of this post, let me put you out of your misery - it’s from “Si...
Questions And Answers
Compiled from a list of random questions I found on the interwebs for your interest and amusement… What kind of car do you drive?
Chasing Unremarkable
Since arriving back at WordPress I have been trying to get away from deep, thoughtful blog posts. Instead, I have endeavoured to record the mudane, the incon...
The One Where I Didnt Run
The local running race took place this morning in town - the same race that I half-heartedly began training for several months ago (if you can count going ru...
Obsessive Compulsive
Year by year, I’m getting worse. I’m not sure if it’s a reaction to living with quite possibly the most untidy, disorganised person in the world, or just bec...
One Dimensional Dance Show Shenanigans
For the last several weeks we have been keeping a secret from our children - a secret that nearly got blown on Friday morning, when several T-Shirts were acc...
Choosing A Birthday Present
This morning I was tasked with whisking Miss 8 into town aboard the rattliest scooter in the known universe to search out a birthday present for the little b...
Behold The Blogroll
In spite of original thoughts to keep this place bare bones, simple, and minimalist, I’m slowly adding, extending, and growing it’s virtual tentacles. It’s n...
Friday Morning 1Am
I’m playing that game where you avoid the arrival of tomorrow by staying up late tonight. Except it’s already tomorrow, so the game doesn’t really work at al...
An Hour To Go
I’m in a curious limbo hour this afternoon. I didn’t really stop at lunchtime, which means technically I could pack up and leave now - except I won’t - becau...
This Blog Needs A Banner
I’m working on it. Honest. Stupid really, isn’t it - I can write code that would floor most people, I can design websites, create WordPress themes from scrat...
Thinking Outside The Box
For the last several years I have only really followed a handful of blogs - most of them discovered during the inaugural running of “NaBloPoMo” (National Blo...
Splendid Isolation
In a perverse way, I’m kind of enjoying the fact that very few people have either found this blog, or are reading it so far. Of course this faux-anonymity wi...
The Abercrombie And Fitch Paradox
A friend posted on Facebook this evening about Abercrombie and Fitch’s marketing strategy - the fact that they don’t sell clothes beyond a certain size in th...
Taking The Red Pill
A dramatic title for a dramatic act. I just deleted all of the content from my Tumblr account, and posted the rabbit hole quote from The Matrix. After marvel...
Halfway Through The Week
Weeks that begin with bank holidays always seem a little strange. Somehow it’s already Wednesday. The morning is whistling past like some kind of fast train ...
Hello World
Writing some kind of “hello world” post would appear to be the “done thing” at this juncture - the beginning of a breadcrumb trail leading on to all manner o...
Freedom
There is a curious sense of freedom associated with “starting anew”. This blog can be anything I make of it, and I can choose to use it how I see fit. I’m th...
Foul Mouthed Old Women
Before leaving work this evening I called home to see if I needed to stop and get anything on the way. Silly question really. Twenty minutes later I found my...
Sunday With Friends
After a slightly crazy morning running here there and everywhere, the remains of Sunday were spent with good friendslaughing, telling stories, eating badly b...
We Danced All Night
I have been wandering around all morning humming music, and grinning.After racing home from work last night, and trying to clear the house up before the baby...
Have Skills Will Travel
For the past couple of days I have been falling out of bed at a ridiculous hour, thundering across the fields towards London, diving underneath the ground, a...
Late To The Batman Game
While wandering back from the swimming pool on Saturday afternoon we accidentally on purpose found ourselves in the local Computer Exchange place (read: nerd...
Cycling Home
While cycling home tonight I found my thoughts filled with the girl I have worked with for the last three years, who spends her last day working with me tomo...
The Final Tag Rugby Match Of The Season
Our middle daughter has played tag rugby for the past year - not the typical sport for a girl to be involved in, but then her little sister does Judo, and he...
Swimming With Miss 12
Midway through the morning my better half quietly wandered into the study and asked if I would take Miss 12 swimming. She has her first rowing lesson at scho...
A Night Out With Friends
To mark the departure of the girl I have shared an office with for the last three years, a group of us headed out yesterday evening - first to the local pub ...
The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants
Our eldest has been going through a tough time recently, so last night while her sisters were at Brownies I pushed everything else to one side, and gave her ...
Man Of Steel
I’m wonderfully contradictory when it comes to comic books - I love the idea of them, and I love the artwork, but I’ve never sought them out - never bought t...
Life At 40
In early March this year I passed a so-called significant milestone - 40 years on this ball of mud, spinning around our reluctant sun (or at least it seems r...
Another Weekend Rolls Past
I’ve been sitting on the couch for the last ten minutes, wondering what to write that might describe the weekend. I’m struggling to come up with anything wor...
The One Where Friday Didnt Happen
I fell out of bed a little after 7 this morning, stumbled down the stairs, jumped in the shower, transformed myself fromNeanderthalto homo sapiens sapiens, a...
Finding Time To Write
Saying “I do not have time at the moment” is the easiest excuse in the world. Of course we have time - we can make time. How many hours do we spend each week...
Books To Read
I’m thinking that perhaps if I share the list of books I would like to read some time soon (most of which I already own, or have borrowed from friends), it m...
The Remains Of The Snow
After waking from a strangely vivid dream in the early hours of the morning, the murmurs of little people eventually forced me to look at the alarm clock, an...
The Mobile Phone Waiting Game
I nearly caved this weekend. The contract is up on my old mobile, and I’m finally able to upgrade.
The One Where We Nearly Achieved Warp Speed On A Sledge
There had been plans to wander into town this morning in search of a new mobile phone. Somehow that plan got relegated after looking at my other half (who ha...
A Year Of Living Dangerously
Since focusing my blogging efforts over the last few weeks, a tap of sorts has been turned - a tap that pours words. It has left me wondering if my blogging ...
Through Different Eyes
I was talking to a wonderful friend on the other side of the world earlier, and the question of perception came up - how we see the world, and perhaps how th...
Going Against The Flow
Somebody I have followed for years, but never struck up conversation with collided with me mid-wander a few days ago as we quietly passed through each other’...
To Strive To Seek To Find And Not To Yield
While reading the posts of far flung friends this evening, I found myself drawn into their lives, their hopes, their happiness, and their sadness. It struck ...
Birthday Bowling
We took the little girl formerly known as Miss Eight bowling with her friends yesterday afternoon. After tipping out of work early, I made it home in time to...
Whats That Whistling Sound
I’m sitting in the study at home with a thick jumper on, trying to warm my body up after another Sunday morning stood at the edge of the rugby pitches in nea...
Angry Isnt The Word
This morning our eldest daughter stood at the side of a football pitch for an hour while the rest of the team played. She stood in near freezing temperatures...
One Chicken Down
When I left the house this morning, I filled the chicken food bin, opened the door to their run, and only two appeared. Normally we don’t worry about itthe r...
On Being Discovered
I swapped war stories recently with a great friend online who had their blog “discovered” by their family. I have been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
If Blogs Could Talk
Hello blog. I’ve never addressed you directly before, so thought this might be fun. I haven’t given it a great deal of thought before doing so, so you’ll for...
Hilarity On The Underground
While stood on the underground train travelling east beneath London, we arrived at one of the stations and a young guy with a beard and headphones scampered ...
Surfacing
On Friday afternoon the lovely girl that sits behind me wandered through the office and remarked “oh, you’re not in on Monday, are you”. I had no idea why sh...
Old People And Corner Shops
After extensive testing and field research, I have come to the conclusion that no matter what time you enter a corner shop, and no matter how empty the shop ...
Mathematics
Although I didn’t study mathematics past college, it’s always been something of a nerdy secret interest. While it’s true that math occasionally crosses paths...
Is The End Approaching
I’ve been caught in two minds about writing a personal blog over the last year - while I like to share thoughts, ideas, and opinions with the world, it all s...
Creative Failure Abounds And Yet We Persist
I used to write with so much more confidence than I do now. Well crafted posts - exploration of thoughts and experiences, wrapped in a literary style that I ...
Close Encounters Of The Scissored Kind
This morning I survived a close encounter with a pretty lady brandishing scissors. I had planned to go to the usual place where a disgruntled guy cuts my hai...
Busy Doing Nothing
I have been sitting here since tucking the younger children into bed an hour or so ago, and have achieved absolutely nothing.
A First World Problem
Our eldest daughter came home from School yesterday - her first day back after the Christmas break - and murmured something about her school friends getting ...
Embracing Your Inner Weirdness
Over the last month or so I have been trying to find more time for myself - listening to my own music, writing my own words, sharing the various photos I tak...
Saturday Morning 1015
It’s Saturday morning, and Miss Twelve is at football practice accompanied by W - who is no doubt huddled at the side of the pitch with her Kindle. I went to...
Old Friends In Dreams
While asleep, what little spare capacity seems to be left in my head decided it was time to crank out something worth watching - and created an entire play f...
The Reality Of Life With Three Young Children
While recognising that it has become increasingly rare for me to write about the children, I thought it might be timely to recount some of the observations I...
On Friendship Self Censorship And Deep Thoughts
It’s easy while working, commuting, washing up, tidying up, and generally doing your best to not offend, let down, or annoy anybody to forget who you are - w...
The Day The Internet Died
One afternoon some time ago, a small red cross appeared in the Windows system tray (this was back in the days before the Chromebook, or the Macbook).
Cycling To Work
I live close enough to the office to ride a mountain bike to work, and do so through sunshine, rain and snow.
Moleskine
The level of attachment I experience to such a seemingly trivial thing is a surprise - I can now understand why people become obsessive over notebooks, diari...
George
A little after eleven each evening - like clockwork - one of the three brothers arrives in the house, circles a spot on the sofa in the lounge, and settles d...
A Review Of The Year
2012 began with me working on a long term project that involved staying in hotels for weeks on end - missing most of the run-up to new year, and huge chunks ...
2012
Here Comes The Rain Again
Mid morning, on New Year’s Eve, and the rain is falling yet again. I was up a little after 9, washed up, fed the children, let the chickens out, fed the cats...
Game Of Thrones
After buying my other half the first season of Game of Thrones on DVD for Christmas, we have begun watching it over the past several nights. We are only four...
The One Where The Year Rolls Slowly To A Stop
I can’t believe the year is almost over. Last New Year is still fresh in my mind, and yet here we are again, buying groceries, and making plans with friends ...
First Post
This is going to be interesting… my first post from the Chromebook. It arrived at 6pm this afternoon just as I was giving up hope of seeing it today. The par...
Carl Sagan
I first discovered Carl Sagan through the book “Contact”, which I read a year or so before the movie arrived at cinemas. The closing chapter has always stuck...
When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth
I discovered “When SysAdmins Ruled the Earth” while looking at the ePub digital document format a couple of years ago. I was commuting into and out of London...
There And Back Again
I took our eldest daughter to the cinema this afternoon to watch “The Hobbit”. Her only knowledge of the story has been through the first few chapters - list...
The Notebook
I tend to carry a paper notebook everywhere. Sometimes I go for days on end without writing anything in it, but I still keep it with me. You never know when ...
Isnt It Pretty To Think So
I discovered Isn’t it Pretty to Think Sovia Nick’s Tumblr (he’s been listed in theWritersspotlight category for years). He published excerpts while he was wr...
Boxing Day
After the children finally settled down at some time after 3am on Christmas Eve with coughs and colds aided by hair-trigger “Santa Sense”, we wereamazed to m...
2Am On Christmas Morning
Our middle child is sick. We are both still up at 2am on Christmas morning, trying everything in the book to get her to sleep so we can sneak a stocking into...
Christmas Shopping
After W finally arrived home from getting her hair cut this morning (it somehow took 4 hours), I raced out of the house with our eldest to go Christmas shopp...
The Saturday Before Christmas
It’s been a few days since I emptied my head into the computer, and I have little to do this morning (waiting for the dryer to finish a load, while the rain ...
Marilyn Monroe
Once upon a time I went to college, and spent two years drawing people every day. One of the projects intended to fill our head with ideas was “Pop Art”we go...
Beauty
Beauty isn’t on the cover of a magazine, or in the flickering image from a cinema projector.
Starbucks
For many, I don’t think the appeal of Starbucks is the coffee itself. It is the escape; the “other place” we might go, leaving the shackles of our normal lif...
On The Road
While wandering the streets of San Francisco about ten years ago, we happened upon City Lights Bookstore, the legendary haunt of Allen Ginsberg, Frank O’Hara...
Olympians And Porn Stars
I noticed something rather odd recently. I’m not sure if I noticed it because we have rapidly growing children, or because I was in a more observant mood tha...
A Happy Place
The children have become my happy place. Perhaps they always have been. While they push boundaries, press buttons, and explore limits on a regular basis, the...
The Butterfly Effect
I first experienced the writing of Ray Bradbury while at school - a chance english exercise, reading a collection of short stories called “Golden Apples of t...
Technology As An Obstacle
We are surrounded by so much technology, and yet all it really serves as is an obstacle, standing in the way of friends in distant places. Standing in the wa...
Entertaining The Deconstruction Of Hopes Plans And Dreams
Ernest Hemingway once wrote the following;
Arthur C Clarke And The Discovery Of Literature
Arthur C Clarke was the first author I really connected with. His stories captured my heart and mind, and demonstrated the power of the written word. Where A...
All The Worlds A Stage
Shakespeare said;
Working From Home
Fifteen minutes ago I sat down to write something before beginning work for the day. I still haven’t written anything (unless you count this). I now have hal...
The Tumblr Decimation
When I re-joined Tumblr in November, I visited popular posts by people I remembered in the hope that I would remember names or faces in the likes and comment...
Without Words Or Direction
When I sat here a few moments ago (shortly before the “A” key started acting up, and I ripped it from the keyboard, and then realising that perhaps I shouldn...
Sunday Morning Rugby
Over the last year Sunday mornings have transformed from late breakfasts, endless cups of tea, and catching up with friends on the internet to steaming breat...
One More Day
One more morning of getting up before the sun rises. One more day watching a seemingly endless round of lectures.
Bedtime Stories
After returning from work yesterday evening, I arrived home just in time to tuck the children in bed, and read their bedtime story. Given their inability to ...
Into The Belly Of The Beast
The title of this post isn’t entirely true. I wasn’t inside the belly of the beast at all… more “across the road” really.
The Day In Bullet Points
Got up at 5:30am, jumped in shower, then got dressed. While getting dressed did something to my lower back (don’t ask how). Have been ambling around like an ...
Sunday School And Pantomime
Murmurings escaped the children’s bedrooms a little after eight this morning. While gazing at the repetitive strobing of the alarm clock second marker, an un...
Saturday Six
The kids are at the middle school Christmas Bazaar today. W is helping run Santa’s Grotto, Miss 12 is doing stick-on tattoos, and the younger children are ea...
California Suite
Earlier this week some friends called with two spare tickets to watch a play at The Mill at Sonning. Fitting it in amid our work week was something of an adv...
Absent Minded And Distracted
While cycling home from work, I had a great idea for something to write about. The memory that I thought of something great to write about is a strong one. T...
The One Where Miss Seven Had A Day Off For No Reason At All
The primary school our children go to has a rule stating that if your child has been sick, they are not allowed to visit school until the have not been sick ...
Thoughts And Reflections On 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...
The One Where He Figured Out How To Automagically Cross Post Toeverywhere
It never occurred to me before that the publishing features of WordPress could automatically publicise my scribbling - I hesitate to call it “writing” - out ...
The Night Watch
I’m sitting in our eldest daughter’s bedroom, using her netbook while she pretends to be getting tired. It’s heading towards 10pm. It’s all my fault, and I e...
Five Minutes Respite From The Madness
My work computer, running a shiny new copy of Windows 8, decided to follow the instructions of Chief Crazy Horse today, and agreed that “today would be a goo...
Adventures In Minecraft
Over the course of the last couple of years I have seen several friends post about an odd video game called “Minecraft” - an open ended sandbox where you cou...
Returning To Instagram
I re-joined Instagram earlier in the week. I’m not really sure why I did it, and I’m not really sure if it’s a good idea or not. I don’t seem to be sure abou...
Mayhem And Chaos Abound
At a little after 6am this morning our eldest daughter arrived in the bedroom doorway like a glum silhouette, murmuring about being unwell. Under normal circ...
Seduced By Moleskine
I was in the local bookstore several days ago with our youngest daughtershadowing her while she expertly re-arranged a low table filled with children’s books...
Perhaps Brain Dumps Are Therapeutic
I used to occasionally take part in a damn fool crusade on the internet called “750 Words”. The idea behind the site is that you empty your head into the key...
Wasps Versus Tigers And The Under Eights
On Sunday afternoon we wrapped up warm and made our way to Adams Park on the outskirts of High Wycombe to watch the rugby - London Wasps versus Leicester Tig...
From There To Here A Personal Blogging Journey
For me it all began in the late 1980s, with the explosion of Compuserve and AOL, and the lowering of the bar to a point where everybody could understand how ...
The Digital Photo Mountain
Over the last 12 years I have amassed something in the region of 45000 digital photos (and that number grows by several hundred every time we leave the house...
An Admission Of Horror And Resignation
One of the main reasons I chose to go with Blogger as an enduring solution for the writing I share online was the existence of my old posts - stretching back...
Platforms Destinations And Audiences
Walking back from the railway station last night after a 6 hour journey home, I began turning over a thought in my head. I thought it might be worth explorin...
The Journey Home
After a product and technology demonstration that went better than might have been expected, I wandered out onto the rain soaked streets of Harrogate this mo...
Dinner For One
After arriving back in the hotel room this evening, I changed out of my work clothes, had a wash, and wandered out into the street. For the first time since ...
The Journey North
Monday night finds me sat in a hotel in the far north of England, after close to 6 hours doing battle with the railways. I would like to say the journey was ...
Morning In The Park
There is a vague recollection of waking up far too early this morning, and hearing a little person ask “can we go downstairs?”, followed by a grunt from W, a...
The Tumblr Diversion
The title of this post sounds like the title of a Big Bang Theory episode, and it’s content is perhaps just as nerdy. I re-joined Tumblr last week, after swe...
Getting Back On The Horse
After a day off work sick (where my entire head turned into a very successful snot factory, breaking several production records over the course of 24 hours),...
Nablopomo And Lisa
One of the great benefits of having taken part in this curious online world for so long, is you know the back-story behind things. While reading a press-rele...
Emptying My Head
I have the day off work today, while the school is overtaken by a polling station. I don’t normally take any notice of politics, so was surprised to learn la...
Giving In To The Virus
I surrendered this morning. Raised the white flag. I worked from home yesterday with an awful fever, snotty nose, and sore throat - racing to get some work d...
Working From Home
Vague recollection tells me the dream I was having shortly before the radio alarm clock roused me this morning was a good one - it’s just a pity that I can’t...
Farms Weddings And Family
On Friday morning we threw hastily packed bags into the car, and set out for a farm in Oxfordshire - our home for the weekend while attending my little cousi...
An Unplanned Day Off
I booked today off months ago, to attend my cousin’s wedding. There’s one problem - my cousin’s wedding isn’t until tomorrow. I’m not quite sure how that hap...
Raining
A consistent, relentless downpour of rain is drumming the windows on one side of the house, and pouring from gutters on the other side. Somehow I don’t think...
The Journey To Cumbria
We finally left the house at about 10:30, and set out for “The Lake District” once more. After six uneventful hours, we finally arrived in Boot, just down th...
Twitter Tumblr Facebook And Wordpress The Four Legged Horse Ofthesocial Apocalypse
Anybody that has endured my online adventures for any amount of time knows that I change my mind about platforms and destinations on an almost daily basis. I...
The One Where The Doctor Told Me Not To Be Too Brave
This morning I found myself sat in the local Doctor’s waiting room for the third time since moving here 11 years ago. It was interesting to see how things ha...
The One Where I Broke A Rib
I haven’t really written about this in any great depth - although I have mentioned it. Given that I’ve been off work today, and have an appointment at the Do...
The Monday Morning Story
This morning began with a bedside vigil of the alarm clock - watching as it ticked inexorably towards the moment when I would absolutely have to get up in or...
Sideloading Kindle Ebooks On The Nexus 7 For A Summer Of Reading
Yes, I know the title hints at all manner of technical shenanigans. In reality, it’s just me choosing books to take away on holiday next weekand to begin rea...
Annoyances Mountain Lions And Idiot Cyclists
After much thought and deliberation (actually, very little thought, and even less deliberation), I’ve decided it might be better to not talk to anybody today...
10 Random Questions And Answers
If you could change something about your home, without worry about expense or mess, what would you do?
The Olympics Arrive
I stayed up with our eldest daughter last night to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics. I had tried to impress upon her earlier in the week that the c...
Late Night With The Netbook
It’s heading towards 1am, and I’m sitting in the dark with the netbook. I’m camping out in the lounge tonight - the patio doors are wide open, with occasiona...
Contemplating A Line In The Writing Sand
Before returning to WordPress recently, I lived almost exclusively among the intrepid community of lifestreaming idiots at Tumblr. I use the word “idiot” in ...
Google Nexus 7
More by luck than judgement, the “Google Nexus 7” arrived yesterday eveningafter falling off my mountain bike on the way home (another story for another day)...
Wine Sunshine And Drudgery
While dissolving into a puddle of sweat in the office yesterday (computers don’t make for good refrigeration devices), I texted my better half;
Memories Of Turkey And The Yediburunlar Lighthouse
Late in the summer of 2006 we got on a plane at London Heathrow, switched our mobile phones off, and dissappeared. Vanished.
The First Day Of The School Holidays
The chickens woke me this morning at some ludicrous hour (yes, we have pet chickens). They appeared to be rehearsing their own special version of the Barber ...
Thoughts On A Blogging Resurrection
When I returned to WordPress last weekend, I mentioned that I had been re-treading a familiar path between blogging platforms. From self-hosted WordPress, th...
In Appreciation Of Friends Pizza Wine And The Stars
After wandering into town yesterday afternoon while the rest of the clan were at a “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” (best not to ask), I picked up some food for dinner ...
Seduced By Moleskine
On the shelf above the desk in our study stands a line of old moleskine notebooks. The first was discovered in the stationary isle of the local book store wh...
Being The Journeyman Blogger
For the past several years I have lived a curious online existencefloating between the various social networks and blog platforms. I’ve been searching for an...
The One Where She Failed The Peter Pan Audition
In an effort to get the younger children into bed a little faster this evening I proposed a race, where the last one with teeth brushed, pyjamas on, and into...
About Last Night
There was a time when I could sit a the keyboard and just “write”. Press keys. Most of the time the words appearing on the screen would amount to no more tha...
Lunchtime In The Land Of Fear And Loathing
Ok, so the title was a bit on the dramatic side. I’m back at work after a day off - wrestling with source code once again, and peering up the side of mount i...
Tuesday Morning At Starbucks With Ethanol Powered Rocket Scooters
Yes, I know the title is rather spectacular. Keep reading - it will all make sense in the end.
The One Where The Bike Tried To Kill Me Honest
While turning the pedals of my mountain bike en-route to work this morning (I hesitate to call what I do “cycling”), an ominous crunching sound escaped my ri...
Part Of Me
While single handed today with two of our children at the weekend, I decided to combat the rain with a trip to see “Part of Me” at the cinema. It caught me t...
Morning In Starbucks
Well this is a novel experience… it’s heading towards 10am, and I’m sat at a small table near the window in Starbucks, watching people come and go. After dro...
To Strive To Seek To Find And Not To Yield
While aimlessly surfing the internet late last night a Facebook browser tab flickered, and began blinking. Curiosity got the better of me as it so often does...
Stepping Back
This weekend I finally decided to stop doing freelance web development work in my spare time. I’ve made my apologies to the client I have been working with r...
Random Thoughts On Friday
The clock just ticked past midnight. It’s now Friday in England. In a few short hours I will be rolling out of bed, rubbing sleep from my eyes and stumbling ...
Food Friends And Nights To Remember
When we arrived home from work on Friday evening, I seem to remember asking if there were any plans afoot for the coming weekend. Although each weekend is us...
Tiredness Tantrums And Twitter
Has it really been a week since I last wrote in the blog? Apparently so. I’m sat in the study at home, late in the evening on a Friday night, wondering what ...
830Am On Sunday
I can’t believe I’m up so early on a Sunday. I also can’t believe it’s been a week since I last wrote in the blog. I guess I could explain it away by being b...
That Was The Weekend That Was
I’m sat here at work on Monday morning, and I’m pretty much burned out before the week has even begun. I’m thinking that perhaps spending twenty minutes empt...
Weird Dreams
I had the strangest dream last night. I was walking through London, and spotted a girl I grew up across the road from on the other side of the roadstanding b...
Olympians
Our 8 year old is doing a school project on the Olympics, part of which is to prepare a “project board” at homea presentation board covering any aspect of th...
Somebody Press The Stop Button Please
As Mondays after the half term holidays go, today was pretty uneventful. Having an “uneventful” day doesn’t happen by accident of courseit requires skill, de...
Sunday Morning
It’s Sunday morning. I guess the title kind of gave that awayalthough I could have written this on another day, and mis-titled it on purpose. That would have...
Not The End I Promise
Once upon a time I would sit down each night and pour the contents of my head into the keyboardtelling tales, relating stories, and finding words to describe...
Jubilee Friends Food Drink Fantastic
There had been plans to celebrate the Queen’s diamond jubilee on the green outside our housegathering friends and neighbours for a communal picnic in much th...
That Was The Week That Was
I can’t believe it’s been the best part of a week since I last wrote in the blog. There was a time when I wrote every dayrecorded everything that happened. L...
Weekends Are Those Things That Other People Have
Don’t get me wrong - the weekend was tremendous fun, but it seemed to be centered around everybody else’s fun.
The One Where All The Wheels Fell Off The Wagon
Today started with me going nuclear in the kitchen, and ended with me defeatedly reading a stream of emails from work… at 10pm.
Gardening Pratfalls And Explosive Laughter
While cutting the grass in the back garden last night, the children made their way out into the garden to accompany me - to watch, to get in the way, and to ...
Sitting In The Dark
A few moments ago, after wandering into the kitchen with the intention of making a cup of coffee, I filled the kettle with water, switched it on, and then fo...
Losing A Day
I woke late this morning with a pounding headache, and started counting back through the alcohol I had consumed the night before. Three bottles of Budweiser ...
Alone With A Beer
Our eldest is away at a Guide camp, the younger kids are asleep on their bedroom floor (don’t asktheir version of “camping” I think), and W is at her friend’...
Playground Skirmishes Raise An Interesting Dilemma
Over the last few years I have written the story of our adventures as a family, and our children in a blog. I’ve shared countless stories, observations and i...
Late Night In Monaco
After washing the dinner things, tidying the kitchen up, putting the kids to bed (W was out), and checking email last night, I finally made it into the loung...
Dancing Girls And Unexpected Credit
Over the past few weeks my better half has been working on a secret project - at times our lounge has been carpeted with penguin headpieces, and at other tim...
Car Crashes Running And Boobs
While exiting the relative safety of the quiet country estate roads while cycling home last night on my mountain bike, something rather entertaining happened...
The Day After The Night Before
I’m rapidly discovering that burning the candle at both ends doesn’t really work. It probably doesn’t help that I’m not so much burning both ends, as throwin...
Tuesday Morning Parcel Club
It’s Tuesday morning after the bank holiday, and I’m sat at home, watching the minutes tick by. Apparently a parcel is “on the road” en-route to me via the H...
When Did She Start Growing Up
Miss Eleven is changing in front of our eyes. Somebody seems to have taken the happy go lucky young girl, and replaced her with a demanding, lazy, resistive,...
Thoughts About The Failure Of Tumblr
I have been a member of Tumblr since it started. I have walked away and returned many times - each time drawn back by the relationships forged with people al...
Perhaps A Quiet Saturday Might Be Good
It’s heading towards half past one on Saturday afternoon. The younger children are in the park in front of our house playing, the eldest is writing something...
The One Where The Xbox 360 Was Delivered And Probably Stolen
A few nights ago I ordered an XBox 360 from Amazon, along with a few games. It would appear the XBox isn’t going to get here because the delivery driver has ...
Name Five Things That Live In The Sea
We always try and sit together at the table for meals - be that breakfast, lunch at weekends, or evening meals in the week. Quite apart from instilling famil...
Mountain Bikes Punctures And Ass Hattery
On the way home from work last night the bike started to feel strange - shifting imperceptibly sideways under me. At first I ignored it, and put it down to t...
Thoughts About The Online Community
I’m betting there must be some kind of mathematical model that describes the clumping of users within blogging communities such as WordPress and Tumblr, and ...
The One Where The Day Went Straight To Hell
In a spectacular display of ass-hattery, the hosting company of one of the services we use all the time at work decided it would be a good idea to upgrade th...
Saturday Morning
For the first time in weeks we have nothing planned today. Saying that, it’s tipping down with rain outside. The kids have avoided killing each other so far,...
Falling Out Of The Loop
I never thought I would say this, but I’ve kind of fallen off the blogging horse. I know it will be temporary, transitory, or any of those other long words p...
Running Around In Circles
Another day passes, and once again it feels like my feet have hardly touched the ground all day. From the moment the radio alarm clock burst into life at 7am...
Please Excuse My Absence From The Interwebs
If you’ve been wondering about my relative silence online, it’s because three things happened; I lost it with Windows 8 and formatted the machine at home Goo...
And We Smile
A little after lunch a window popped open on my desktop, with a single word inside it. “Hello”. The biggest grin spread across my face, and has remained ever...
What Would It Take
I had an interesting conversation with an old friend yesterday. He asked what it would take for me to be lured away to work elsewhere. I’m pretty sure he was...
Livejournal And Vox
After much dicking around (something I seem to be particularly talented at), I renamed my LiveJournal account to my real name. I don’t like “hiding” online -...
Livejournal
I am my own worst enemy. Not content with having a self-hosted wordpress blog that I haven’t written anything in for over a week, I have been nosing around L...
We Won
We took part in a fundraiser at the infant school this evening - raising money for two daughters of a friend to go on a trip to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Afte...
Busy Busy Busy
It’s been one of those days - up early, single handed the entire day, take all the kids to football (eldest plays for the town - they got thrashed), drag the...
In Need Of Repair
I’m starting to wonder if I’ve been cheating old father time for the last few years, and he’s just discovered the discrepency while doing an audit.
10 Random Questions
While noodling around this lunchtime on the interwebs, it struck me that I haven’t done one of these exercises in quite some time. After googling the random ...
The One Where The Day Didnt Stop
Yes, yes, I know “the day didn’t stop” is a ridiculous statement. Of course days don’t stopthat would imply either the earth stopping spinning (whereupon mom...
Why Im On Tumblr
I have a chequered past with Tumblr. I joined back in 2007, within weeks of the website launching, and dicked around with it endlessly while writing elsewher...
The Madness Of Smoking
W had a bad day yesterday - I think the Easter Holidays caught up with her - dealing with the children, the decorating, and a birthday party in consecutive d...
Turning The Pedals
This blog was called “Turning the Pedals” for a while, and the name befits this week rather well. At the beginning of the week we were holed up at my parents...
The One Where Miss Six Became Miss Seven
I woke this morning at 7am, and figured I had at least another three quarters of an hour before getting up. To be honest, I was surprised the kids didn’t wak...
Answering Questions
My quite wonderful far flung friendAntidamenfrom Norway (we have known each other sincewaybefore Tumblr), requested answers to the following questions - who ...
Easter In Cornwall
Leaving the house on Thursday afternoon wasn’t so much a planned departure, as a concerted effort to lever everybody from the house. A somewhat calm day rapi...
Falling Apart At The Seams
The weekend before last I was playing football on the green outside our house, and the bright idea popped into my head to see if you could kick a football wh...
Mcdonalds Build A Bear And The The New Ipad
After standing in a freezing cold field for a couple of hours yesterday morning watching our eldest’s football team get walloped by a team of bigger, stronge...
Uncertainty
News broke this morning that the company I have been working with recently has had the carpet pulled from under it in a sudden and dramatic manner.
Following Friendship
Something occurred to me today. I have to admit I had not really thought about it before, which probably says a lot about me as a person (or at least, it wil...
Idiocy Abounds
I had intended on walking to the gas station to get something to drink and eat - but was met by a traffic jam. At 11pm. All because the union containing the ...
The Sport Relief Mile
The better part of Sunday saw the Beckett household (and W’s Mum) turn out en-masse in Higginson Park to take part in the Sport Relief Mile. We were all up b...
Old Friends Open My Eyes
I quite accidentally got back in touch with an old friend recently. She worked at a web design company in San Francisco back in the dot com boom, and somehow...
What On Earth Am I Doing Up
It’s 7am on Saturday morning. I’ve been up for the best part of an hour already. I’ve had a shower, tidied up a bit, and am looking forward to watching the F...
Kicking And Screaming
Late last night I called home to see how the day had gone, and to find out what on earth I might buy W for her birthday (which was today). An unexpected voic...
Buzz Out Loud And The End Of All Things
People often say “all good things come to an end”, and I can’t help feeling that sometimes they shouldn’t. Of course we can’t force the present to continue i...
On The Road Yet Again
I woke up at 5:30am this morning, and watched the minutes flicker past on the alarm clock. I reasoned with myself that 6:15 would be the absolute latest I co...
The One Where Blogger Jumped The Shark
After several hours monkeying with assorted python scripts and megabytes of XML a few weeks ago, I succeeded in pulling the full archive of all the blog post...
Mothers Day
The greater part of today adhered to the hopeful script very well indeed. I fell out of bed early, deflected the children for a couple of hours, provided a c...
Being A Writer
A few people have recently commented that I should write. Not just the blog, but a “proper” chunk of writing - a book - a novel. I don’t know. Quite apart fr...
Not Forgotten Just Misplaced
It’s Friday evening, after an unremarkable week. The children are fast asleep upstairs, and “Water for Elephants” is playing on the television. The clock jus...
Tonsillitis
Early in the hours of Monday morning I snapped awake to the sound of footsteps between the bedrooms. Without opening an eye, the footsteps wandered slowly in...
Thoughts About The Raspberry Pi
While reading various forum posts about Raspberry Pi supply chain issues, it got me thinking about the wider picture this evening. I guess for the benefit of...
A Quieter Weekend Than Planned
It struck me this afternoon that I haven’t written in this blog for whole days. Unheard of.
What If We Hadnt Adopted Them
While making a cup of coffee earlier, a co-worker asked me what we are doing at the weekend. I laughed, and she frowned.
An Unexpectedly Rainy Day
While making a cup of tea for my co-workers this morning, I stood daydreaming at the kitchen window - wondering if I should write a few minutes worth of thou...
The Tarzan Yodel Escalation
The evening seemed to be going so well. I got in from work after a pretty productive day, was greeted by the chickens while walking my bike to the shed, and ...
Slowing Sunday Down
In the spirit of the way most things seem to happen around here at the moment, Sunday rolled straight over me like a truck, rather than heeding any instructi...
Another Birthday
In truth, I had completely forgotten about my birthday until a couple of days ago when W mentioned about her parents coming over today to come out for lunch ...
The One Where Miss Eight Showed Her True Musical Leanings
It’s a funny old world. After the stresses and strains of yesterday, returning home in a foul mood (caused by computers failing to bend themselves to my will...
Sometimes Offline Sometimes Tired Sometimes Stressed
I seem to be making a habit of writing at the “wrong end of the day” (or at least, it’s the wrong end of the day if you take any notice of the “Artists Way” ...
Mexican Night
Yesterday morning Mrs Beckett reminded me that we had tickets to attend a charity function at the local primary school - a “Mexican” night. A nearby restaura...
Memories Of The Game Of Kings
It’s late on Sunday evening, and I’m wondering what to do with the last hours of the weekend. I’ve setup camp in the living room - sat at the dining table wi...
What Happened To The Week
It seems like days since I last wrote in the blog. I guess it hasbeen days. When I’m buried in stress during the daytime, it pretty much kills off any though...
Holy Haircuts Batman
I will neither confirm or deny that somebody stole most of my hair this morning.
Emptying My Head
750 Words is a fantastic website where you can empty your head, and get your thoughts analysed by all manner of psychological profiling techniques. The only ...
Hello Midnight My Old Friend
Where on earth did the evening go? Where on earth did the entire day go? I remember looking at my watch mid-morning, thinking it was going to be a slow day. ...
Simplify Simplify Simplify
After giving it a couple of weeks, I’ve unplugged “the blog” (the one you’re reading) from both Facebook and Google Plus. It’s not a niche blog. It’s not goi...
Meetups And Tweetups
Over the past couple of years I have dipped into and out of the community of bloggers writing at Tumblr, and vicariously witnessed the various meetups that t...
Saturday Happens To Me
Saturday began like any other day; with the eruption of the radio alarm clock, the flooding of cold sunlight across the bedroom, and the calls from little pe...
Tick Tock Tea
While out on a secret shopping trip in town to compile goodies for an even more secret parcel I’ll be sending to a friend, I spied something. Something I hav...
The Little Netbook That Could
I never imagined a little, underpowered computer would be so useful. It was bought with some “spare” cash about 2 years ago, as a travelling companion for th...
Recounting A Valentine Adventure
I couldn’t resist recounting this particular adventure. I had planned to write about it earlier in the week, but life somehow got in the way. In the spirit o...
Doodling With Intent
Not a lot of people know that I once spent two years trudging to and from college - and while studying computer science, and mathematics, I also studied phot...
An Englishmans Home Is His Homepage
After a number of people chased me with prospective freelance webdesign projects in recent weeks, I thought it might be a good idea to have a homepage.
An Afternoon In The Garden Of Fear And Loathing
It’s half past threefive oclock in the afternoon, and I’m forcing myself to have a belated lunch break at work. Do you ever have days when you watch the emai...
Too Many Hats
Over the last few weeks an inescapable truth has become more evident than ever before; I can’t be everything - I can’t do everything. I can’t be all the thin...
Midnight In Paris For Valentines
This afternoon a good friend asked if I was doing anything special for Valentines. Her bemused reaction to my amusement required an explanation.
Dipping A Toe Back Into Tumbling Waters
I used to have a blog atTumblr. I got annoyed with it’s shortcomings, and walked away. I then tried WordPress. I got annoyed with it’s shortcomings, and walk...
Music
A slow Sunday morning is affording the opportunity to vanish down a musical rabbit hole this morning - in pursuit of new music to listen to. A new soundtrack...
20 Random Things About Me
This is all Lauren’s fault. If not for her reminding me about the wonder that is “X things about me” posts, I would have struggled to come up with anything t...
Much Needed Peace And Quiet
More by luck than judgement, today has become a slow day. A day filled with nothing much at all. A day to sit down, listen to music, write, rest, and drink t...
Further Adventures In Azeroth
Who knew that sneaking through the back woods of a fictional world, running errands for inn keeper’s daughters, and dealing with infestations of things that ...
The Bloggers I Remember
At lunchtime today I was flicking through Darren Rowse’s “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” exercises, after passing the link on to a friend who is just starti...
Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow
The snow began falling as I cycled home last night. Snowflakes are surprisingly painful when your angular momentums coincide at sufficient velocity (that pro...
Thoughts About Leaving Tumblr
At the risk of covering this subject to death and then some, I wanted to write a bit about Tumblr - and my reasons for walking away from it. I made a lot of ...
Revisiting Mary Annings Remarkable Creatures
In a stroke of genius following a horrendous morning, I booked two days off work next week to coincide with half term. You might be wondering why the term “g...
Returning To Normality
After the trials and tribulations of travelling with work, today marked a return to “normal”. My normal. The one where I fall out of bed before I really want...
Another Morning In The Coffee Shop
I am now the proud owner of a Costa Coffee card. I just picked one up from the counter while ordering exactly the right thing, using exactly the right langua...
On The Road Again
It’s Monday morning, and I’m sat in a coffee shop hundreds of miles from home. The day began for me at 6 this morning, rolling out of bed moments before the ...
Home Is Where The Key Fits
Welcome to my humble abode for the evening. I’m not going to tell you exactlywhich hotel, owned by exactlywhich chain I am in, for fear of betraying my posit...
Winter Wonderland
It had been forecast for days. Levels of excitement around the younger members of the household had been escalating dangerously all afternoon. Our promises o...
Islands In The Stream
Over the course of the last few hours I have been searching out old haunts on the internet - in pursuit of original, interesting, and well written personal b...
Frosty Saturday Morning
The arrival of Saturday was marked by the streaming of sunlight across the bedroom ceiling, and the broadcasting of an easy listening playlist from the radio...
A Blogging Journey
For the last several months I’ve been re-treading a familiar path between blogging platforms - one I have walked before. From self-hosted WordPress, through ...
A Second Visit To Azeroth
After dinner yesterday evening I suggested to my better half (having taken a brief look at World of Warcraft last weekend) that it might be a better chill ou...
Thoughts About Virtual Worlds
This evening I installed Second Life, and World of Warcraft - finally taking a look at the virtual worlds I have heard so much about over the last few years.
Another Weekend Vanishes Up Its Own Ass
I’m not entirely sure what happened to this weekend (well, I am, but I’m not impressed that it whistled past as quickly as it did).
Winds Blow Pedals Turn And The World Carries On
I woke in the early hours to a performance of operatic magnitude outside the bedroom window. I can’t recall the wind ever putting on such an impressive show....
Up And Running
I woke up a little after 6 this morning when our youngest charges decided it was time to get up, get out of bed, and start playing some kind of game in their...
To Begin Again
I’ve sat here for the last few minutes and re-written this opening sentence several times. How do you start? What should your first words say? How important ...
Time To Change Heads
After three days chained to the desk at home listening to a far flung educator, and getting far too used to wandering into the kitchen to make coffee and rai...
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...
There And Back Again
After being away with work so often recently, I have become first choice among our children for bedtime stories. I’m not sure how long this favoritism will l...
Theism Athiesm And Agnosticism
After I got back from my run this morning, while stood in the kitchen making a cup of coffee I switched the television on and half caught a typical “Sunday M...
The Sun Rises And Heralds A Fightback
I worked from home on Wednesday, looking after our seven year old who had started throwing up on Tuesday night. By the end of Wednesday I was throwing up too...
The One Where My Parents Visit
A little after lunchtime today my mobile phone vibrated in my pocket - signalling an answer to the question the children had been asking every half an hour a...
The One Where 2 Hours Became 5
The children made dinner for me today. A special “going away” dinner - to mark my final day with them for a week. As six oclock neared, I pulled the bags I h...
The Morning After The Night Before
For the first time since having the children, we spent New Years Eve at home. Normally we find ourselves spending Christmas and New Year racing around the co...
The Day Before The Night Before Christmas
It’s the final day of work before Christmas, and I find myself at something of a loose end. I’m attempting a little “housekeeping” with the work computer (wh...
The Creeping Dread Of Travelling With Work
On Sunday evening I will leave town on the train, waving goodbye to my family, and head towards a week living in a hotel once again. This will be the longest...
The Beautiful Game
We woke at 7 this morning and watched the clock tick until nearly 8, when we knew we would have to be out of bed. The coach of the local team was calling wit...
Steve Jobs Geektastic And The Future Of Ideas
I received a number of fantastic books for Christmas this year, and can’t wait to read them;
Seven Plus One Equals Eight
In a repeat of last weekend, which I believe I may have referred to as “not a weekend” during more than one stressed moment, this weekend is careering off un...
Responding To A Letter From The Past
While digging through old blog posts a few moments ago, I came across a post I wrote in 2006, titled “A letter to my future self”. I thought I might share it...
Religion And Free Will
Why is it that - without exception - the people I know who believe in a God or Gods and visit church regularly seem to think there is nothing wrong in acting...
Rebelling Against The Self Proclaimed Experts
Earlier today I spent a little time reviewing the people I follow through the various social networks, and re-visited the continual search for the new, and t...
Online Training Exposes A Hangup
Today was the first of three spent holed up in the study at home, taking part in an online training course for a technology platform I’ve been using for the ...
New Years Day With Wonderful Friends
We were invited out this afternoon to spend time with some friends that live across the green from us (quite how we have not got together in the past is anyb...
Its Nothing Like The Movies
For the last several months my entire life has been consumed by work - leaving my family behind for the greater part of each week to live in a hotel far from...
Gravity Happens
Yesterday began before the sun came up, racing across the country in the dark to reach a far away office in time to begin somebody else’s day. From the momen...
From There To Here A Personal Blogging Journey
In the spirit of re-visiting adventures past for the amusement of the masses, I thought it might be interesting to recount a few of the twists and turns of m...
Fourth Night
Tonight marks the fourth and final night in the hotel - I received word in the office this morning that I’ll be released, and will be able to travel home tom...
First Time Ive Been Ill In Over A Year
I’m not joking. It might even be 18 months. Sure, I’ve had colds. This feels more like flu though (I bet it isn’t - but I have a creeping dread). I’ve had fl...
Finding Out Who Your Friends Are
Earlier this evening I wrote a somewhat abrasive comment about Tumblr exercising their right to slash and burn the “Missing E” browser extension from their i...
Final Friday Of The Year
I’m sat in the study at home, bathed in the light of a desk lamp, two monitors, and a laptop. I’m officially “on call” for work - which in reality means I lo...
Embracing Your Inner Weirdness
In recent months the various pulls on my time have regularly conspired to erode the blogging community I know and love to a silent crowd viewed from a passin...
Doing Nothing
I overslept this morning. I had been planning on getting up not long after the children to hopefully deflect them somewhat from my parents. I appeared downst...
Doing Nothing On Purpose
For the last couple of days I have been more or less “offline” - or at least, disconnected more often than not. I will neither confirm or deny that I have ea...
Bad Moods Broken Bikes Football And Running Shoes
I came home in a hell of a bad mood this evening. I would probably have been okay, but found myself picking up mugs, glasses, cups, plates and cutlery before...
An Early Start
The scrambling of a little person wrenched me from my dreams this morning as she made her way up our bed in the dark, and sought warmth in the bedclothes bet...
Adding Up The Miles
This will be the last post for a while about running - I promise. Fitness blogs are insufferable at the best of times - which is why I’ve signed up for a soc...
9 Years Approaches
ParisLemon” recently (the tumblog of former tech journalist MG Siegler), it occurred to me that a rather significant milestone is approaching - as 2011 becom...
4 Trains
While riding in the back of a taxi through Gloucester headed for the station this evening, as I chatted to the taxi driver a glass fronted chip shop flashed ...
2011
Monday Night Hotel Club
Yes, the title of this blog post is a blatant rip-off of “Tuesday Night Music Club” (the Sheryl Crow album that catapulted her to MTV fame, and bedroom walls...
Here We Are Again
The washing machine and dryer are running overtime, and yet another weekend is rolling to a stop. Early tomorrow I will jump into a colleague’s car and head ...
Home For The Weekend
After a marathon three days living in a far flung hotel, wrestling with huge complexity all day, and feverishly working into the early hours each night, I fi...
The Day Before
Tomorrow morning I’ll be out of the house before daylight, destined for several days in far flung faceless offices, endless meetings, gnashing of teeth, drum...
The Nine Stop Sunday Plan
My continued efforts to distort space and time are continuing to failwhich is probably entirely predictable, given that I’m not Dr Emmit Brown, and I haven’t...
What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks
How is it December already? I only realised it was december when I looked at my watch just now, and it’s already saying it’s the 3rd? Have I really been that...
Pondering Professionalism At Days End
It’s 11:30pm at the time of writing, and I’m shutting down the work laptop. It will get fired up again just before 9 in the morning, with the knowledge that ...
Tilting At Windmills
I have been working past midnight, day after day to single handedly wrench the project I am working on from a “conceptual demo” to an “installable product” f...
The One Where I Rescued A Dog And Won A Bottle Of Wine
While cycling along the entrance road to the estate where our offices are this morning, I came upon a golden retriever wandering along on it’s own. For a few...
9 Years Approaches
While reading “ParisLemon” this morning (the tumblog of former tech journalist MG Siegler), it occurred to me that a rather significant milestone is approach...
Surrendering The Ipad
Yesterday evening I removed everything from the iPad directly related to “me”in the process converting it from “mine” to “ours”. When I bought it, I knew thi...
Not Playing The Game
While reading back through the posts of various friends around the internet over the last few days, a creeping realisation has dawned on me. I don’t like pla...
The Start Of A Saturday
The alarm clock went off at exactly 7 this morning, as it always doesexcept for Sundays. I say “exactly” because it has this little badge on it that indicate...
Walking Into An Argument
I’ve been in from work perhaps 20 minutesput my bag down, took my coat off, and immediately started cleared the washing up, tidying the lounge up, and pickin...
Running On Empty
It’s only tuesday evening, and I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck.
Replenishing The Washbag
This is itmy entirewash bag contents, after a trip to the shops to replenish everything this morningToothbrushes I have an electric toothbrush somewhere, but...
Has Anybody Seen The Weekend
Another weekend seems to have whistled past, and I’m struggling to understand where it went. I woke both yesterday (Saturday) and today with the same thought...
Where Did Saturday Go
Between the time I rolled out of bed this morning, and it getting dark this evening, the day has been unrelenting. We’ve somehow packed in;Football Practice ...
The One Where The Work Laptop Calls For Me Like The Crystal In Superman
I can’t believe another week has flown past. Is it really Friday night again? I’m living a treadmill life at the momentalternating between home and work, hou...
Another Thursday
We woke at 7 this morning with the radio alarm clock, and rolled towards each other. My better half surfaced from the bedclothes mole like, and smiled that s...
Truth
There’s this girl who’s blog I’ve been reading for a couple of years now. She writes wonderfully, and has always had something interesting to saybe that a th...
The Morning After The Night Before
Due to a chronic lack of hours in the day, I ended up working all last night on a client project for my day job. Unpaid. W wasn’t too amused about it, and it...
Music And Lyrics
After yet another crazy Saturday, I suggested after we got the children to bed that we just sit and watch a moviesomething that might not require too much ef...
Five Movies
In response to my last post, I was asked if I could come up with a list of films that I likethat inspire me. For the last hour or so I’ve sat here, trying to...
Saturday Morning In The Coffee Shop
Well this is a surprisefor the first time in at least a couple of years, I’m sat in a coffee shop on a saturday with a cappuccino, a slice of granola, and ha...
Walking In On World War Three
I’m not sure what was going on with the traffic today. I left the house 10 minutes later than normal, and was nearly hit by 4 different cars within 200 yards...
10 Books On My To Read List
A little while earlier this evening I posted a recommendation for the book I’ve been reading to our children on Facebookit’s called “You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum...
The One Where Tom The Cat Used Another Life Up
We have three catsTom, Sam, and George. Between them they have 27 lives. We should put a totaliser on the kitchen wallbecause it’s probably down to 25. I wro...
The Ancient Heavenly Connection To The Starry Dynamo In The Machineryof The Night
Late last night I read a post by a good friend that brought something to mind; I hardly ever tell people how much I value them on the Internet. I have done f...
Tuesday On Mars
You probably started reading this post with half a thought about the titleand might be expecting some kind of Ziggy Stardust reference somewhere. You’re not ...
Running A Mile For Charity
This morning we were up bright and earlyW was helping man the drink stations for the local half marathon along with the Girl Guides, and I took our younger c...
Remember Remember The 5Th Of November
On Friday evening we took our children to a firework display commemorating Guido Fawkes capture in 1605 while attempting to blow up the British government. I...
Theres This Girl I Know Who Writes A Blog Sometimes
There’s this girl I know who writes a blog sometimes. I doubt I will ever meet her because she lives on the other side of the world, but we sort of know each...
Saying Goodbye To Windows
A few evenings ago a mysterious bug reared it’s head in Windows 7 on the desktop machinefiles have started to take ages before they begin writing to the hard...
Home From My Adventures
I arrived home at about 7pm last night after a couple of hours in the car with my co-worker. Quite why he needed to stop at Oxford to buy a bag of shopping w...
Running Out Of Words
I’ve been sat here in the hotel for the last hour in front of the laptop, staring into space, reading junk on the internet, and basically wasting time. When ...
Science And Religion
A few years ago we were staying at my parents in Cornwall, and my nephew was there for the entire summer (don’t get me started on his Mum and Dad repeatedly ...
A Rather Sad And Lonely Halloween
While the children were out having fun this eveningdressed up as various ghouls, caked in face paint, and draped in hilariously camp fancy dress costumes, I ...
Single Handed Saturday
I woke this morning a little after 8, and was surprised to find W already up, washed, dressed, and packing a few final things in her bags. She is away this w...
Winter Is Approaching
En-route to work this morning on the mountain bike, I came stopped, pulled the phone from my pocket, and took the following photo.It looked a lot more impres...
Pulp Fiction
I’ve always been fascinated by “pulp fiction” books, but have never read any.
Tiredness Frustration And Working Away
I’ve written the opening sentence of this blog post five times now, and deleted it each time. This is the sixth try. It’s not that I have nothing to writequi...
Truthful Tuesday
It’s been a while since I’ve participated in the “Truthful Tuesday” meme, and to be honest I can’t remember what I’ve written about in the past. Here goes I ...
Nightmares And One Liners
I woke in the early hours this morning with something on my mind “ something that caused quite possibly the most entertainingly connected nightmare I have ev...
Half Term And Near Misses
The alarm went off at 7 this morning and filled the bedroom with something or other from the 1980s, prompting W to make some incoherent mumble about turning ...
A Month With The Ipad
In the spirit of doing things backwards, I bought myself an iPad last month before I really knew why I might ever need one. I think this is true of most peop...
Lunch Pub Family No Washing Up Fantastic
We used the excuse of W’s parents and brother visiting to have lunch at the local pub - the first time I have been down there in weeks. Memorable moment of t...
The One Where We Got The Ipad Replaced
Little Miss Seven and I set out for the Apple Store in nearby Reading this morning to (hopefully) get the iPad replaced, after it was suddenly struck down wi...
I don’t understand the big problem so many people seem to have with Facebook. I think people’s main objection is that they started out as a closed system, an...
Idiotically Reconstructing Wordpress
Late last night it occurred to me that since my personal blog was sat on a subdomain of a domain I own, it wouldn’t really matter if I replaced the underlyin...
Random Tuesday Brings Calm And Serenity
The universe finally seems to be tilting back in my favour. Multiple work projects are being delivered in multiple directionsI am a virtual Shiva today (well...
Nightmare Day
Today I was parachuted in to yet another project at work, doing something I haven’t done for a year. It involved a skill set I am qualified in (I got 100% in...
The Big Bang Theory
I’ve never quite understood why my friends and colleagues are not hugefans of “The Big Bang Theory”. It’s the only television show I have made any effort to ...
School Quiz Night In Photos
We took part in the annual junior school quiz night this evening, and were beaten by one point by the teachers. Our specialist subjects seem to have been mus...
Changing Lanes
I’ve been writing a blog on the internet for yearsso many years that if I ever switch platforms (yes, Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, I’m looking at you), I ...
Home
I arrived home from working on client site last night at about 5:30pm, and rather than let myself into the house, just knocked on it. After a few moments our...
Sat In The Hotel Bar
This evening I’m sat in the foyer of the hotel with a glass of cider, killing time until my colleague appears a little later for a meal in the restaurant.
Country Hotel
I thought I was going to be online a lot over the next few days (while holed up in a country hotel) but the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
Packing My Bags
This evening I’m packing my bags to head away for a few days with work. I’ll be back on Thursday night. Although this sounds ridiculous, I can’t say on a pub...
Monkeybars And Pants
We saw the girls for perhaps an hour all dayspread across breakfast, lunch, and dinner time. We seem to have won the battle in terms of encouraging “outside”...
Dinner With Friends And Girls Football Tournaments
For the first time in at least a couple of years, we went out last night as a “grown up” couplewithout the childrenand had dinner with friends.
Look At The Size Of That Thing
We visited the big school in town last night for the first time with our eldest daughterthe school she will be moving up to next September. It’s funny really...
Insanely Great
At some time after midnight last night I was checking twitter, and saw a post from Pete Cashmore at Mashable appear at the top of the stream”Steve Jobs has d...
The Bag Of Holding
I’ve been sorting out the contents of the bag I carry aroundthinning it out a bit. I picked it up at the weekend as I left the house to travel to W’s parents...
Homework Rivalry And Taking Away
After dinner this evening I found myself sat at the dinner table with our eldest daughter (the artist formerly known as Miss 10). I had just finished washing...
Getting Back On The Blogging Horse
For the past several years I have lived a curious online existencefloating between the various social networks and blog platforms. I’ve been searching for an...
Internet Outages Pizza And Dinosaurs
The internet officially broke today. You might think I’m being a little melodramatic, but I clearly saw a triangular yellow sign with an exclamation mark on ...
The Final Sunday Of The Summerautumnwinter
It’s difficult to believe it’s Octoberit’s been bakingly hot all day. We had nothing planned for the day, and following the arrival of a friend’s son at our ...
Walking Into Town
After spending the majority of the day at W’s parents, we finally resolved one of those crazy situations that only ever happens in our houseOur eldest daught...
Never Had One Lesson
If you’re wondering where the total came from, it’s from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”one of the iconic coming of age movies from the mid 80s. I’ve got news for...
Friday Night Melrose Place And Pizza
A couple of days ago I was looking at Amazon (as you do), and a box set of “Melrose Place” appeared in the suggested items list.
Holy Haircuts Batman
After the usual struggle to get the children up and out of the house this morning, and histrionics from Little Miss Seven about her having a cold (you would ...
Rising Like A Phoenix From The Flames
Perhaps a week and a half after being pitched into mayhem I had no part in making, I have emerged today intact, and the project I impacted is spreading green...
Monday From Hell
I don’t make a habit of writing about my day job in the blog for pretty obvious professional and ethical reasons, although I have been seriously tempted on o...
The Infant School Barbecue
Our Saturday began with the explosion of an alarm clock from our eldest’s bedroom at 6:30am. She has been learning to tell the time properly, so had borrowed...
Bringing The Game Of Musical Chairs To An End
Over the past few months my blogging antics would probably have qualified me for a padded cell in an asylum. I’ve written here, at Tumblr, at Posterous, at B...
Madness Surrounds Me
Working through lunch seems to have become something of a habit recently. It’s not something I ever set out to do, but it keeps happening. This entire week h...
Truthful Tuesday
I have been reading a number of blogs around the internet for years, and yet somehow or other I’ve let it slide now for months.
Fuji Jz500
I picked my other half’s new camera up from the postoffice this morning (after Amazon completely disregarded my delivery instructions). AnywayThis thing is a...
Finding Time To Write
While attempting to hide from the world for a few minutes at lunchtime today, I found myself reading a few of the blogs I have followed for years. While read...
Excuse Me Do I Know You
It feels like such a long time since I have written anything of substance in the blog. I’m also aware that I’ve not “been around” either; not read many of my...
The Ipad Arrives
Finally picked up the iPad on Saturday morning. I’ve only had a couple of hours to play with it so far, but so far, so good. Everything seems to work.iOS has...
Ipad Saturday
It’s approaching 8:30am on Saturday morning. I’ve been up for an hour alreadyhad a wash, brushed teeth, got dressed, washed up, tidied kitchen, tidied lounge...
The Apple Lifestyle Choice
I am slowly being pulled back into the Apple universe, and way of life. Recent readers of my online navel gazage are probably unaware that I used to have a M...
Returning To Itunes And The Ipod
After a year or so using other solutions, I’ve re-installed iTunes on the desktop machine at home, and have been re-acquainting myself with it. If you’re one...
Let This Be A Lesson To All Those Who Reblog
I posted some photos of Darth Vader and several Storm Troopers walking around London a couple of days ago. They have been liked nearly 2000 times, and reblog...
Nearly 1Am
Any sensible person would have been in bed hours ago. I, however, am not sensible at all. Among other things, today I did/achieved the following;Got upMade l...
10 Years Together
Somebody asked me earlier if we were doing anything special.”I haven’t seen W since breakfast time, and I doubt I will see her until 9 this eveningin the mea...
Hello Lunchtime Goodbye Lunchtime
That breeze I can feel is lunchtime whizzing past. In the past 24 hours, I have completed the following (in no particular order)Created an online portal to h...
Meet The Teacher
Late this afternoon at work the phone on my desk rang. I picked it up”Hi” (it was W)”Yeeeees”“Umm I completely forgot it’s Meet the Teacher at school this ev...
Sunday 905Am
Story of the morning so far;Woke up to a little blonde person sliding into bed between myself and W, and two cats curled up at my feetFinally got up, had sho...
Im Staying Away From The News Today
Don’t get me wrong - what happened ten years ago wasawful, but to go on and onabout it for ten years, like you are the only country something like that has h...
And Another Thing
Perhaps I’m just old and unbearably cycnical, but reading the various news outlets today, it’s almost a competition to see who can cook up the best mixture o...
Anarchic Thoughts On Sunday Night
The clock is racing towards midnight once again, and I find myself hidden in the study, half working on freelance projects, and half distracted by the contin...
Retro Saturday
In between tidying up after the kids, feeding pets, and putting things away, I’m tryingto have a relaxed Saturday.
Where Did It All Go Wrong
The picture above is of a cartridge for the Atari VCS 2600 video game that everybodyhad in the early 1980s. It was the first successful home video game machi...
10Th Wedding Anniversary
I’ve started thinking about what to get my better half for our wedding anniversary (it’s in a few days). Normally we don’t bother doing anything too specialb...
This Could End In Tears
I’m following an online tutorial to change the low level configuration of my HTC Desire phone. If it works, I can fill it up with more applications than you ...
Stop The World I Want To Get Off
This is getting a bit silly. I’ve been working on a big sort-of-secret project at work for weeks now. It hasn’t just eaten up hoursit’s bitten off entire wee...
Reflections On Life With Three Children
Not many people know that our children are adopted. We went from being two lonely souls bouncing around a big empty house to “the five of us” overnight a few...
Half Successful Mobile Phone Hackery
The great idea about monkeying with my phone to try and free some memory up was half successful. It worked, but it didn’t do what I hoped it would.
The One Where I Bought Coffee For A Machine We Do Not Own
This must be some kind of prize winning effort on my part. While travelling home from work this evening I called in at the supermarket to buy cat food. Given...
So Heres The Thing
Ever since I started using Tumblr more, I deluded myself that I could quite happily write two blogsthe big tome that nobody reads in WordPress, and this one ...
Oh And In Case You Were Wondering
I pulled the trigger on the WordPress blog. While it was a good idea in theoryto seperate the long meandering journal style posts from the brain fart tumblar...
Time To Empty My Head
I go back to work tomorrowI’ve been away for eleven days. I’m not looking forward to returning. Given the hours ticking down, I thought it might be a good op...
So It Appears The Dance Teacher Reads My Blog
While working on the website design for the local dance teacher this morning, we were sipping coffee and chatting about this and that, and she mentioned that...
Monday Morning
I was on orders to take the kids into town today to buy various bits and bobsor at least I would have been if somebody had washed any of their underwear.
Annoyed With The World
I’ve had enough with the world today. I’m not quite sure if it’s because my holiday is coming to an end, or because I’ve only had a few minutes to myself sin...
The Time I Attempted Nanowrimo
Once upon a time I attempted the annual lunacy known as “NaNoWriMo” (National Novel Writing Month)where an intrepid band of idiots try to write a 50,000 word...
Raining On A Sunday
The rain is steadily falling outside, our eldest is playing on the Gamecube with a friend, and the younger children have gone shopping with my better half. I...
Night Fever In The Kitchen
Our youngest daughter erupted in floods of tears this morning after her older sister refused to play Mario Kart with her. I heard the silent stomping through...
Re Appearing On Radar
We arrived home late on Thursday night, it’s now mid-morning on Saturday, and this is the first time I have really had some time to myselfsome time to hit th...
Originality Is The Rule Not The Exception
You will rarely find reblogs in my Tumblogthis is entirely by design. I am here to share my life, mythoughts, myexperiences, myideasthat which interests me.I...
Everything Has A Place
While talking to a great friend online this morning, she asked if I used more than one blog, and why you might do so. While describing what I use, what goes ...
Blackout Stupidity
Here’s where I take issue with the “community” here, and call them out for their stupidity in this entire “blackout” idiocy.(for those that are not aware, lo...
An Unexpected Encounter
There is this little girl that the kids play with outsidethe prettiest girl in the neighbourhood by a mile. She is slim, leggy, has long dark hair, tanned sk...
Random
I have grass in my clothes everywhere.
Home At Last
We left Cornwall at about 6pm. Arrived home about 11pm. Just finished unpacking the car, opening windows (the entire house smells of cat litter tray), and pu...
Final Day Away
Some random stuff first;It’s Thursday morning9:20am at the time of writingI just had the first shave in two daysThe kids are outside in the sunshine playingB...
Cornwall 2011 Comes To An End
This post strangely bookends the previous one. I wrote about our journey to my parents house when we arrived, and only posted short updates to microblogs whi...
Through Tired Eyes
While sat here attempting to wake up at my parents house, I’ve been reading the Tumblr dashboard, and realised something.
So Heres What I Think About The Hurricane
I’ve been thinking about the hurricane, because I have a couple of friends who live along the coast that’s being hit. While watching the initial reports of l...
Greetings From Cornwall
We finally left home at about 7:30 last night, and after driving through torrential rain for something in the region of 5 hours (powered by numerous bars of ...
Lunchtimes
I wish I could come up with a more constructive way of spending lunchtimes than messing around with stuff on the internet.
Breakfast And Frasier
While running back and forth making breakfasts and packed lunches on a morning, I switch the television on in the corner of the kitchen and half-listen to th...
The Days Run Into One Another
It’s heading towards 2am. I should have been asleep hours ago, and yet here I amsat in the dark, listening to a Tim McGraw album, avoiding the internethaemor...
Steve Jobs
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever esca...
Steve Jobs Resigns
The following resignation letter from Steve Jobs just crossed the wires.
Coming Home And Building A Wall Of Words
That’s what it feels likebeing back on my own domain name, on my own hosted installation of WordPress.
The One Where The Day Didnt Stop
Ok, I know the title of this post doesn’t make the greatest amount of senseof course days don’t stop.
Watching The Weekend Vanish
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything of substance in the blog. Perhaps it’s time to change that. I seem to have been hanging out at all manner of so...
The Smurfs In 3D
I took our children to see the Smurf movie on Saturday. I was dreading it. I’m not entirely sure why I guess I saw this as yet another Hollywood rape of a pe...
Not Going Anywhere
Somebody asked earlier if the resurrection of jonbeckett.com means I’m going to be blogging elsewhere. I love it when I have easy questions to answer.
Thinking About Freelancing Again
I’m thinking about doing a few freelance web design projects over the next few monthspurely to earn enough money for the following;Apple iPadSamsung ChromeBo...
Read Write And Engage
While playing with Tumblr over the last few days, I have been reminded how great the community is, how much creativity is going on, and how much more people ...
Good Morning He Says At 1205Pm
I started writing this post half an hour ago, and only just got around to posting it.It’s been one of those mornings so farIn the spirit of “life streaming”,...
An Analogy On Day Suckage
Nobody I work with sucks. Nothing I am working on sucks (well maybe it does sometimes, but I would most likely be marched straight in for a quiet talking to ...
Truth And Fiction
Jesus and his brother start a political movement opposing the government. Eventually the government have him killed.
One Thing After Another
I woke at 7 this morning when the radio alarm crackled into life and started pumping our local radio station into the air for whoever wanted to listen to it....
Wiped Out
Not many words seem to be conjuring themselves this evening to depart my fingers, and fly through the ether to the interwebs. I’m not sure why.
On A Long Journey
Me:I’m so hungry I could eat five sandwichesMiss 7:I’m so hungry I could eat a ten sandwichesMrs B:I’m so hungry I could eat a horseMiss 10:I’m so hungry I c...
Instant Messaging
After talking to a friend on Tumblr earlier about the inadequacy of the messaging system, it occurred to both of us that instant messaging is probably a bett...
The Grown Up Meme
Apparently the idea of this meme is to write about what you wanted to be when you were growing upor what you want to be when you grow up (I might count mysel...
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy By Douglas Adams
One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very very obvious...
Random Recollections Of Sunday
I cooked chips, fried eggs, and bacon for the kids for dinner this evening. They ate all of it. I know it’s not “real” cooking, but they ate it all. I can’t ...
Minimalist Text Editors
A little while ago I discovered a collection of word processing applications for various operating systems that dispense with just about every feature beside...
I Have Something In Common With All Of These People
Douglas Adams, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Woody Allen, Lance Armstrong, Darren Aronofsky, Isaac Asimov, Dan Barker, Dave Barry, Ingmar Bergman, Richard Branson, James ...
George Macavity
Our car crash surviving cat is getting better at a rate of knots. This morning, while making breakfasts, washing up, letting the chickens out, and emptying h...
Contents Of The Bag Of Holding
I have this green bag that accompanies me most places (apparently it’s a Rothco bag, the same as that used by Jack Bauer, but having never seen an episode of...
Watching The Carnage Unfold
I’ve been struggling recently. Struggling to watch a friend on the other side of the world go through a hard time, and know I can’t do much to help, and if I...
Podcasts Saved My Life
Throughout the best part of 2 years beginning in 2007, I was subcontracted into a big company in central London. This meant joining the millions who commute ...
Plato The Republic
Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophise, that is, until political power and ...
Its All About Me
“Turning the Pedals” is all about me. Just me. It’s not about the family guy, the father, the husband, the professional software developer, and the thousand ...
Dr Sheldon Cooper The Big Bang Theory
You went out into the hallway, stumbled into an inter-dimensional portal which brought you 5,000 years into the future, which you took advantage of the advan...
10 Media Tumblogs
While digging around the Tumblrverse earlier this evening, I happened upon a number of Tumblogs published by news and media organisations. If you’re looking ...
Going Against The Flow
Somebody I’ve followed for years, but never struck up conversation with collided with me mid-wander this evening as we quietly passed through each other’s cr...
Blowing My Own Trumpet
Apparently the point of this meme is to think of things you like about yourself. This is going to be difficult, but I’ll tryI’ve been told I’m a good listene...
8 Great Tumblrs
In the spirit of sharing the discoveries I make along the way, here are 8 tumblogs discovered recently that are notwithin the endless circles of memes, tangl...
Watching From The Sidelines
I’m having a day offsat in the dining room of the house my inlaws are renting for the week in Cumbria, while everybody else gets ready to trudge off through ...
The Riots
Although I have been almost out of the loop for the last few days, I have caught the late night news once or twice, and seen reporting of the riots in London...
I Wish I Could Be More
During my mad catch-up of the tumblrsphere this morning, I read that one of the people I have come to knowif we ever really know each other onlineis leaving;...
Breaking The Chain
Have you ever heard of the term “six degrees of seperation”? It postulates that everybody on earth is connected somehow or other through no more than six “co...
The Incarceration Continues
For some reason I woke up this morning imagining today was tomorrowthis is what happens when you take me away from the normal world, and hole me up in some g...
Disconnected
While I’m sat several floors up in a rented house, high in the mountains of Cumbria in the north of England, and have been marching up hill and down dale thr...
Maybe Dad Dead
I arrived home from work to an empty house this evening, and while untangling myself from my backpack, bike helmet and MP3 player in the study, an ambulance ...
I Will Mow The Next One Down
Two days ago I was cycling home from work, and an old man walked to the edge of the road ahead of me, looked both ways, and then stepped out directly in fron...
Burning Out
I arrived at work some time before 9 this morning. I left some time just after 6 this evening. The hours inbetween were a blur. The last few days have been.
The World Through My Eyes
While watching breakfast television a little while ago, a stand up comedian was talking about his routine, and his reputation of being “grumpy”relating every...
The Quest For Originality
Tumblr is different than most blogging platforms in that it encourages sharing of content through the “reblog” featureI’m guessing the designers never envisa...
The Big Lebowski
After years of reading movie critics fawned essays piling ever more platitudes over “The Big Lebowski”, I finally sat down and watched it last night. I’m not...
On Being Discovered
I swapped war stories recently with a great friend online who had their blog “discovered” by their family. I have been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
Headhunted
A Google recruiter just emailed me. I wrote a terse reply back, relating the last time this happened to meessentially telling him that unless Google want me,...
Having A Case Of The Wednesdays
I’m not really sure if this should be called a case of the “Mondays”, “Wednesdays”, or “Can’t be bothereds”. Needless to say, I’m totally up for some distrac...
Five French Movies To See Before You Die
I’ve always had something of a love affair with French cinemathey seem to take far more risks than other countriesresulting in original and enthralling movie...
Bravery
Mrs. Darling: There are many different kinds of bravery. There’s the bravery of thinking of others before one’s self. Now, your father has never brandished a...
Truthful Tuesday Cats And Toilets
When I was about five years old I tried to flush our cat down the toilet.
Surrounded By Mayhem
After leaving work an hour early so my other half could escape to a chiropractor appointment, I walked in the door to a kitchen to clean up, washing up to do...
Minimal Editor Awesome Writing
One of the applications I grew to love in Ubuntu Linux was a simple text editor called “PyRoom”a full screen editor designed to provide minimal distractions.
Update Hell
I re-installed Windows 7 on the netbook late last night. Google Chromium was great, but there were a few things that just didn’t work properly (like sound, t...
Update Hell Continued
Me: How many updates?Microsoft: 65Computer: I need to rebootMe: How many updates this time?Microsoft: 16Computer: I need to rebootMe: How the fck many update...
Short Story Recommendation When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth
If you’ve never read any of Cory Doctorow’s books, you have missed out. I discovered “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” amid a compilation of short stories cal...
Avoiding Tomorrow
I’m sat here, in the dark, practising the age old tradition of avoiding tomorrow. The longer I stay up, the longer I prevent tomorrow from arriving.
After The Night Comes Morning
I’m sat at work, buried in web development again. Working on the company website, drawing banners, re-writing pages, and untangling the mess made of the cont...
We Write The Blogs And Do The Other Things Not Because They Are Easybut Because They Are Hard
In the same way many people watch television, movies, or read books, I head towards the internet when I have free time. I search out people sharing a little ...
Swimming
Just got back from taking the kids swimming, and probably drew raised eyebrows from other parents in the poolafter the first ten minutes we pulled all of our...
Starting Over
In recent weeks my presence here has been deleted, reinstated, recreated, and finally reinvented. I think in some ways I had to walk away in order to realise...
Saying Goodbye To Google Chromium On The Netbook
It was fun while it lasted, but there are just too many things that don’t quite work right (which was expected, to be honestit’s a development build of an op...
Im Not Entirely Sure Where Im Going With This
I began blogging before the word had become part of the common vernacular. In the early days, people wrote about their daytheir life. Online journals formed ...
I Just Met The Greatest Dancer
The guy in front of me for the cashpoint in the bank was stood, feet apart, dancing around like his balls were on fire. He was not listening to any music, an...
Excerpt From Ulysses By Alfred Lord Tennyson
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,And though we are not now that strength which in old daysMoved earth and ...
And Can Somebody Explain
how a certain six year old girl managed to soak the ceiling above the shower so thoroughly?Even taking into account the technique required (I’m guessing cupp...
A Deep Thought For Sunday Night
The most interesting thing about any of us is our differences. If we follow the crowd, and adopt their views and opinions as our own, we may as well cease to...
Reinvention
I just discovered the first domain name I ever owned”pluggedout” is available as a username on Tumblr.
The Many Faces Of Jonathan Beckett
I’ve been struggling to think of anything to write recently. I’ve also been struggling to keep up with what others are writing or rather, not reading what th...
Days Become Weeks
It feels like I haven’t written much in here for daysor when I have written something, it’s just been captions to go with a few photos. Am I losing the will ...
The One Where Little Miss Seven Left Infant School
I had a couple of hours off work this morning to attend the leaver’s service at the infant school in town. Our middle girl has now officially left infant sch...
Tired And Grumpy
It’s just gone midnight, and I’ve finally downed tools for the evening not that I really hadan eveningor a day for that matter.
Truthful Tuesday
I just wandered into Tumblr, and lost myself for a few minutes reading “Truthful Tuesday” posts. While Tumblr has numerous failures and annoyances (more than...
She Flew In We Ate We Drank We Laughed And She Left
I can’t quite believe it’s been so long since I last wrote a blog post. I’m note quite sure what might be most to blame; life, social network distractions (y...
Saturday Rain And Unwritten Plans
It’s Saturday morning, and it’s raining cats and dogs. Great big ones. Ones that go woof (well, not the cats obviously). We are busy revising what on earth w...
Free Time Children Party Food And The Tour
More by luck than judgement, I appear to have a couple of hours to myself. Eldest daughter is upstairs pretending to tidy her room (read: doing nothing of th...
Bottle Shock And Office Space Help Me Do Nothing On Purpose
Last night I rediscovered the value of doing nothing. While there was washing up to be done, tidying up to be done, things to be put away, and various other ...
To Strive To Seek To Find And Not To Yield
I read a great post on somebody elses blog a few days ago about the willingness to carry onto keep putting one foot in front of the other. It struck all kind...
From There To Here A Personal Blogging Journey
In the spirit of re-visiting adventures past for the amusement of the masses, I thought it might be interesting to recount a few of the twists and turns of m...
Be Bold Be Mighty
I continue to struggle with sharing on the internet. For the last several years I have based my thoughts on the writing being primarily for mea record of my ...
Did That Weekend Really Just Happen
I vaguely remember writing the previous blog post (where I bitched about my entire weekend being eaten up by a variety of commitments). The reason I use the ...
Why Do Weekends Have To Be Like This
It’s heading towards lunchtime on Saturday morning, I’ve already walked into town once (to pick up a parcel from the sorting office that they couldn’t be bot...
Moo Minicards
The new Minicards arrived this morning in the post - for those who have never heard of them before, they are half-size business cards made by a great company...
George Returns From Hospital
George - our cat that was hit by a car last week - returned from hospital last night, and is getting used to his home for the next few weeks - a cage in the ...
When You Work Through Lunch By Accident
After meddling with some code that was “nearly finished” for “another five minutes”, I just looked up and realised I worked straight through lunch. I do that...
What Day Is It Again
I should have guessed today was going to slip by unnoticed when I woke up half an hour late this morning. Actually, that’s not the whole truth; I woke up whe...
The One Where Sunday Ate Itself
I swear, Sunday didn’t happen. I have vague recollections of it being talked about, and things might have happened, but I’m not entirely sure any more.
One More Thing
When I left the house to take the kids to the playpark yesterday morning, I spent my first few minutes in the park picking up the remains of an entire case o...
An Update On The Cat
For those who don’t know, one of our cats was hit by a car last week. He was discovered by a neighbour, hiding in a bush about 50 yards from our house, calli...
Tired Sunburned But Happy
After going out on the town last night for the first time in months, I woke up this morning feeling distinctly second hand. I’m not entirely sure how much I ...
The One With Thai Food Bouncy Castles And Playparks
A selection of photos from a mad, mad weekendand it’s only half over. Went out last night with friends for a thai meal, then at school throughout the day wit...
Seduced By Google
I got invited into the Google+ field trial (read:beta) late last nightif you have no idea what on earth I’m referring to, “Google+” is the social network tha...
Early Starts Scheduling Hell Hospitalised Cats And Globe Trottingchildren
I’ve been sat here for the last few moments thinking about how I might even start to describe the day. I’ve got nothing. The only phrase that comes to mind i...
When Will The World Slow Down A Bit
Some days start stupidly, and failing an injection of common sense (which we have very little of around here at the moment), they continue ongathering pace, ...
Truthful Tuesday
In the spirit of “taking part” rather than continually ploughing my own furrow across the internet, I’m taking part in the “Truthful Tuesday” meme for a chan...
Truthful Tuesday 2
I’m off work for the afternoon, it’s raining outside, and I’m sat here with a cup of tea reading the various “Truthful Tuesday” posts on Tumblr. It struck me...
The One Where Sports Day Got Rained Off
It all started so well. I left work at 1pm, got to the school at about 1:10pm, ready for the kids activities to start at 1:15. Although I missed our eldest c...
An Education
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn9IMe5jmf0&w=640&h=390]We watched “An Education” last nightand for the first time in living memory I found ...
The World Through My Eyes Annoyance And Grumpiness Abounds
While watching breakfast television this morning, a stand up comedian was talking about his routine, and his reputation of being “grumpy”relating every day s...
Sundays Barbecues And Family
Todaythe hottest day of the yearwe chose to visit family in Oxfordshire for a barbecuea thinly veiled excuse for us to get together. Throughout most of my ch...
Movies Slow Days And Frustration With Everything
Do you ever watch an entire day vanish in front of your eyes, and become frustrated because you know it’s the weekend, there’s only one day of it left, you’r...
If Blogs Could Talk
Hello blog. I’ve never addressed you directly before, so thought this might be fun. I haven’t given it a great deal of thought before doing so, so you’ll for...
Thud
Deep in the dark, dank depths of the cupboard at the top of our stairs resides a board game of special significancedelivered by Mr Claus one fine December to...
Pointless List Of Operating Systems I Know Better Than I Should
For some reason a few people have been reading an ancient blog post I wrote about programming languages (similarly titled “Pointless list of programming lang...
Please Ignore This Post
I’m working in concert with a lovely person called Sheri in WordPress support to try and get to the bottom of some strangeness in the wordpress.com platform ...
Owl City Makes Friday Bearable
I’m sat in the office listening to “Maybe I’m Dreaming” by Owl City. The music takes me away from the drudgery of chasing my own tail, and allows me an escap...
Zero Maintenance Haircut Please
Before rolling into the office this morning I stopped off in town to get my hair cut. Ten years ago the salon was “the place to go” for men with a roving eye...
Where The Hell Are The Brakes On This Thing
You’ll excuse me if I sound a little hassled, or a little breathless. It’s approaching 5pm, and it’s the first opportunity I’ve had to stop all day. I’ve dru...
Falling Out Of Love With Tumblr
For the past few years I have had a foot in both the “blogging” and “micro-blogging” campsmaintaining accounts at WordPress and Tumblr. In a curious way they...
A Day In The Life Nerd Edition
For the first time in recent memory, I spent the entire day buried up to my ears in HTML, CSS and Javascript, nerding out over a re-build of the company webs...
From Brain To Internet The Blogging Journey
I just posted this to Tumblr. I had thought about cross-posting the exact same words into here, but then thought that might be a bit lazy. I think too much.
Paul
I finally got to see the movie “Paul” last nightby Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. I had heard from a couple of friends that it “wasn’t all that great”, so wasn’t...
Fathers Day
A few photographs to remember the dayI would like to report an easy day filled with relaxation, but as with most days around here, it was anything but. We ar...
Dad Swag On Fathers Day
There are probably worse things you could wake up to on a Sunday morning than this little collection - delivered to the bedroom by three little girls wearing...
Saturday In Town
A few photos from Miss Ten and Miss Six, during our journey into town today. Tasked with getting new glasses, football boots, and visiting the bookshop, we d...
The End Of One Thing The Beginning Of Another
In the spirit of “keeping it simple”, I’m going to stop the cross posting craziness. It won’t mean much for those who read the garbage I pollute the internet...
Considering Seismic Changes To The Blog
Since I started over with the blog, I’ve been posting into Posterous, and automatically cross-posting out to Tumblr, Blogger and WordPress. I’m wondering if ...
And So The Blogging Odyssey Turns Another Corner
It’s Friday night, and I find myself greeting the authoring page of WordPress as one might an old friend. There have been pretenders to the crownPosterous, B...
The First Week With Linux
It’s been a few days now since I installed Linux at home as a primary operating system on the desktop PC, so I thought it might be valuable to record a few o...
Pizza Popcorn Fizzy Drinks Movie Happy Children
We were supposed to be at Brownies tonight for a special “Father’s Day” evening filled with idiotic father/daughter races, competitions and activities. Rain,...
The Days Are Falling Into Each Other
At the moment life feels like a set of revolving doors where you’re pushing them round, but no exit is appearing, and you just keep pushing without really th...
Interesting If Geeky Times
I rule. Linux rules. I can now open a terminal window at work, and connect directly to the computer at home, use it, and see what it’s doing. It’s only a ter...
Nothing To Report
I’m not entirely sure why I’m writing anything today. I have nothing much to report, beyond the usual storyGot up, got the kids up, made breakfasts, walked t...
Silence Descends On Sunday
The morning began at 7am when the younger children arrived in the bedroom doorway, wobbling around, half awake in their pyjamas. “Can we go downstairs?” On a...
Saying Goodbye To Windows
I’m in the process of backing up our desktop PC. Later today, I’m going to wipe it, and install Ubuntu Linux. I’ve been running Ubuntu on the netbook for wee...
Dinner At Nandos
After a long day out, I suggested we take the children to Nando’s for dinner. The look on W’s face was a picture.
Remember The Milk
Oh no I didn’t… Oh yes I did…I installed “Remember the Milk” on my phone, and am about to integrate it into GMail to annoy the crap out of me. I’ll try it fo...
A System For Everything
One of my oldest online friends commented last night that I have a system for everything. She didn’t mean it in a bad way; she was just making an observation...
The World Slows Down
It’s Thursday, it’s lunchtime, and the world is finally slowing down a little for me. Lunchtime is my own once more, and affords the opportunity to write, an...
Long Lost Artwork
Now here’s something interesting. I got the USB ZIP drive working in Windows 7 (a feat in itself), and have just been digging through the contents of the old...
Its What You Do That Defines You
A few minutes ago several thousand bees landed on the roof of the house opposite the office I work in. A house where we know a small child lives with her mot...
On Not Taking Part And Being Stupid
I almost titled this post “Truthful Tuesday”, after the regular meme that crops up on Tumblr, but reason prevailed at the last moment, when I recalled the go...
Clearing The Decks
This evening I’ve been clearing some of the rubbish that had mounted up on the desk. Somehow I feel more productive if I have a somewhat orderly environment ...
Single Handed
While my better half returned to work today, I have been left in charge of the children. Apart from now sporting matching bandages on their big toes, all see...
Down To Three Chickens
Just as it was getting dark last night, a chicken appeared through the rain in the back garden and bounced off the patio doors. We raced out into the darknes...
Time To Empty The Head Again
If I don’t sit here and tip my head out, I’ll probably go mad. I might have to go and sit somewhere quiet though “ or put headphones on “ my other half just ...
On Being Discovered
I have been swapping war stories this evening with a great friend online who has recently had their blog “discovered” by their family. I have been there, don...
Look No Hands
Taken while en-route to work this morningit’s surprisingly difficult to hold a phone above your head and not look where you’re going while travelling at 20 m...
Doing Nothing On Purpose
I have ten minutes of work left, and I’m doing nothing. On purpose. You might think this lazy, but I worked straight through lunch today. I did the age old t...
Watching The Minutes Tick Down
It’s been the kind of day that could have gone off the rails at any point, but didn’t because you hang on, and pretty much force it to go the way you want by...
All She Ever Asked For Was The Right To Twinkle
Once upon a time I went to college, and spent two years drawing people every day. One of the projects intended to fill our head with ideas was “Pop Art” “ we...
Travelling To London
Sat on the train as early morning light stutters between the trees and the train windows, briefly illuminating the carriage, and making me squint. When I fir...
How Did I Not Know About Kik Messenger
A new friend on the interwebs just pointed me in the direction of KIK “ a fantastic messenger app for iOS and Android that looks and works pretty much the sa...
Weird Dreams
For the first time in recent memory, I have a pretty clear recollection of a dream so am recording it for prosterity. This is probably going to serve as a wa...
The Night Before The Morning After
I’m headed back into London tomorrow morning with work (while I say “tomorrow”, it’s nearing 1am “ so it’s really “later today”). I’m tempted to get the earl...
Chess Challenge Dad Versus 3 Girls
Just before dinner this evening I took on the combined might of our three daughters at chess. The eldest now plays a pretty mean game, next eldest knows all ...
Movie Night Spiderman Wine And Meatballs
After another day spent almost exclusively with the children, we ended it by choosing a movie to watch together after dinner. Spiderman won the day, after a ...
Commodore Amiga Another Blast From The Past
While searching for things in the attic the other evening, I stumbled across a Commodore Amiga computer from the late 1980s that’s been quietly sitting in a ...
A Forgettable Day Exposes A Superpower
The desk is strewn with remnants of the day “ vague clues to the recent past. A Linux magazine, a coat hangar, a lava lamp, and a stack of writeable DVDs. No...
Retrieving The Past
Tucked away on a shelf in a dark corner of our study, a row of ZIP disks have hidden for the last decade. They have moved house with us, and survived multipl...
Rain Brownies Imacs And Wallpaper Decisions
Last night I was supposed to accompany the Brownies after work on a walk along the riverbank to the next town, and then catch the train back. The arrival of ...
Embracing Retro The Apple G3 Imac
Yesterday evening a large box awaited me in our study, containing a piece of computing historyan Apple iMac. It’s a little over ten years old, and in it’s da...
Facebook Funny Cats And Macintoshes
I meant to sit quietly and write something this lunchtime “ really, I did. Before I knew it, the web had quietly sidled up to me, and started whispering inte...
Uneventful Mornings Rule
The day started at 7 with the eruption of rubbish radio from the alarm clock, and the sound of little people creating as much noise as possible across the la...
Oiling The Cogs Of The Internet Machinery
I’ve just gone through the various iterations of the blog (Posterous, Tumblr, WordPress and Blogger) and fleshed out the Contact and Links pages. I’ll link t...
Helplessly Watching Carnage Unfold
I’ve begun writing this post several times, and scratched what I have written each time. I can’t seem to find the words. Perhaps if I just empty my head, it ...
Recreating The Blogroll
In the far distant past, I used to read a lot of blogs. This was back in the days before social networks, microblogs, tumblogs, or whatever else has been inv...
Monday Morning And I Feel Fine
It’s Monday morning, and everything seems to be right with the world for a change. No doubt some kind of express train from hell will burst out of nowhere so...
Elton Takes Me Back To The Three Month Hotel Odyssey
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsC3g3N_qUQ&w=425&h=349]In late 2009 I spent the best part of three months living in a variety of hotels in ...
Sometimes Busy Is Good
Following a sleepless night last night, it’s been good to keep busy today “ not having too much chance to stop has meant no time to reflect on lost friends, ...
On My Own Terms
Following the destruction and re-creation of the blog, I have been busy this evening putting various pieces of internet chicanery back in place. Rebuilding t...
Preparing For The End Of The World
I’ve just been reading various news stories about the “end of the world”, which apparently occurs tomorrow. This is all according to a number of self importa...
Running On Empty
Sat here at lunchtime, tools downed, listening to a barrage of electronica in my ears and wondering how best to waste the next half an hour. There are probab...
Contents Of The Bag Of Holding
I’ve posted the inventory of my bag several times over the years “ ever since I began the great commuting adventure in London, and found myself carrying a tr...
Finding The Undiscovered Country
While talking to a close friend online earlier, I caught myself thinking about building “something” on the internet. I stopped myself in my own tracks (now t...
Wired
After a day spent submerged in swathes of C#, Javascript, class libraries, web services, HTML, SQL, CAML, and various other dialects of computer language kno...
Truthful Tuesday
I’ve never taken part in the “Truthful Tuesday” meme before, and don’t have much time to write today, so here’s something I prepared earlier it’s all truthfu...
A Moment Of Clarity
I’m sat bathed in the light of several laptops and flat screens. Source code is scrolling past, along with compilation results, and various debug traces. The...
Unsettled
Today feels strange. After a weekend where I was afforded the rare luxury (essentially through being housebound) of following my own interests “ my own agend...
Its All About Me
While writing an email to a dear friend who is going through a rough time on the internet at the moment, it occurred to me that I had unwittingly been busy i...
Drawing A Blank On Sunday Afternoon
You know when you want to write something, but nothing appears in your head to write about? That’s kind of what’s going through my head this afternoon. I’ve ...
Emptying My Head Into 750 Words
Have you ever heard of a website called 750 words ? It encourages you to empty your head into the computer each day “ kind of a private blog, where you pull ...
A History Of Blogging And Ten Tumblrs To Turn Your Head
I’ve been writing online for years, on just about all the major platforms “ LiveJournal in the early days, my own blogging platform, WordPress, Blogger, Type...
Writing Our Legacy For Future Generations
It’s a strange thing, this “internet”. I sit here in a darkened room tapping away on a small slab of plastic with a glowing screen, and within seconds of hit...
To Strive To Seek To Find And Not To Yield
I read a great post on Tumblr early this morning about the willingness to carry on “ to keep putting one foot in front of the other. It struck all kinds of c...
Zathura
I’m sat watching the movie “Zathura” with our youngest. Her eldest sister is grounded “ considering her actions of the past few days in her room. I delivered...
Being A Blogger Hiding In The Tumblrverse
I got accused of being one of the “tumblr people” this morning, after being complimentary about a friend’s photo. My immediate reaction surprised myself; “bu...
Working Through Lunch
It only occurred to me late this afternoon when I received an email from a new friend that I had worked straight through lunch. The email rapidly turned into...
The One Where The Mac Blew Up
The G3 Mac arrived this evening. I unwrapped it, put it on the desk, plugged it in, and powered it up. The front light came on, then nothing else. I sat wond...
Podcasts Saved My Life
Throughout the best part of 2 years beginning in 2007, I was subcontracted into a big company in central London. This meant joining the millions who commute ...
School Fundraiser
I’m ever so slightly hung-over this morning after drinking the best part of an entire bottle of red wine to myself at the school fundraiser last night. There...
How To Lose Friends And Alienate People
Over the last few years I’ve watched broadcast television increasingly infrequently. I tend to only catch anything if I happen to be sat in the lounge at the...
Be Bold Be Mighty
I continue to struggle with sharing on the internet. For the last several years I have based my thoughts on the writing being primarily for me “ a record of ...
Time Is Sloooowing Down
I swear, I can hear the gears of the universe crunching as Friday refuses to quit on me. Not funny. If this was all invented by a creator (Flying Spaghetti M...
Back In The Office
Back in the office this morning after the adventure in London yesterday. Lots to think about “ ideas for the future, and long term plans being thrown around....
Thursday In London
(transcribed from the Moleskine that I sat scribbling in after arriving an hour early this morning) Sat in a coffee shop next door to the Microsoft Building ...
London Calling
I’m returning to London tomorrow morning for the first time in a while. I’ve been invited to the launch of a new product by one of our technical partners “ a...
Better Than The Sum Of Its Parts
A few weeks ago I almost deleted my Tumblr account. I became frustrated with the many (and there are many) bugs, missing features, and the general bone-heade...
At Least Im Here
The morning began at 3:30am with the arrival of a little girl shaped silhouette in the doorway of our bedroom. Quite why it woke me up is a mystery. I think ...
A Day Off
W is taking the younger children over to visit her parents this afternoon “ which immediately affords me some real down-time. Time to catch up with podcasts,...
I Like To Ride My Bicycle
Why knew that I could be trusted in charge of a six and a seven year old on the back roads and tow-paths of our local town? I found out this afternoon that I...
Reflecting On A Day Of Spectacular Unachievement
I have written nothing of substance for several days now, and have felt no inclination to do so. Not exactly the words that should be leaving the keyboard of...
We Know How To Hold A Royal Wedding
“Come on girls… time to watch the Royal Wedding” “Why?”“Because two or three of these will happen in your entire life - and this one happens in ten minutes.”...
Typewriters
I read on the internet today that the last well known Typewriter manufacturer (in Mumbai, India) shut down. Various news outlets jumped on the story and clai...
The One Where We Bought A G3 Imac
Shortly after talking myself out of purchasing a typewriter earlier this evening, I found myself looking at G3 iMacs - the Apple computer from the late 90s t...
The Idiocy Of Masterchef
I’m half watching this idiotic TV show we have here in the UK called “Masterchef”, where aspiring chefs compete to find out who’s the best. The series starte...
Final Day Off
It’s my final day off work today. While I would like to kick back and do as little as possible, reality is dictating otherwise. The presence of three little ...
Aligning The Planets
Since starting to use Posterous as a blogging platform, I’ve been thinking about doing two things; Bringing the various auto-post destinations under one name...
Royal Wedding Mania Descends
It’s all kicking off finally. In a few days time Prince William will be marrying Catherine Middleton. To not know this, you would have to have been buried un...
Building Memories
This should be on page one of the book called “How to be a Parent” - If you’re seven years old, your sisters have gone off to play without you and you’re fee...
Lack Of Faith
One of my favourite bloggers wrote a fantastic post crossing through online bullying, Lady Gaga, Easter, religion, and any number of other explosive subjects...
On Vacation
Just a short update today (sort of inspired by a close online friend asking after me on Tumblr). Yes, I am on vacation “ only for a few days, but a few well ...
One Hour And Counting
I find myself in the strange position of having run out of work to do this afternoon, and not having enough time to start anything. In an hour or so I will b...
Stolen Moments On Sunday Evening
Here we are again “ holed up in the study in a few stolen minutes between other things happening. I very much doubt I’ll finish writing this before I’m calle...
Single Handed Saturday
W headed off to spend the day and greater part of the evening with her Mum mid-morning “ leaving me in charge of the little maniacs for the remainder of the ...
Seriously Impressed With Posterous
A couple of weeks ago I started taking another look at Posterous “ the clever web publishing platform that can auto-post out to dispirate destinations. A sin...
Reality Television Choosing Family Over Fame
I’ve just watched perhaps the most memorable moment on television I have ever seen “ and for all the right reasons. While noodling around with the laptop and...
Random Questions And Answers For A Friday Lunchtime
What are you reading now? I bought “Generation A” by Douglas Coupland just after getting the Kindle, but still haven’t started reading it. Lack of free time,...
Tiredness In The Aftermath Of The Far Flung Commute And The Piratebirthday Party
It’s the Thursday morning after the longest Wednesday. Now there’s a great first sentence. As you will already know if you’re an obsessive reader of my onlin...
Returning To London
I woke half an hour before the 6am alarm clock this morning, and lay staring at the ceiling for the next half hour “ playing through the day ahead in my mind...
Blogging Things You Should Do And Things You Should Not
Many moons ago I read an interesting post at Coding Horror regarding the “deadly sins” of blogging “ the things you should never do. On the whole I agreed wi...
Posterous And Its Markdown Awesomeness
Warning “ this post is going to be about something incredibly geeky, so unless you too are a closet nerd, or you own a skinny fit shirt with “Talk Nerdy to m...
Pausing For Breath
This afternoon I find myself approaching a rare situation indeedthe work required for a client demo mid-week is functionally complete, and fairly well polish...
Pedalling Like Mad Going Nowhere
Enough bellyaching. I hate others going on about their maladies, so it’s about time shut up.
From There To Here A Personal History Of Blogging
In the spirit of re-visiting adventures past for the amusement of the masses, I thought it might be interesting to recount a few of the twists and turns of m...
Lets Try This Quiet Weekend Thing Again
I headed into this weekend with hopes of not really doing anything - perhaps a chance to get better at last. That didn’t really happen at all yesterday… I en...
The Reality Of A Quiet Weekend
Given that I have now been ill for five weeks, and have had a cough for the last week that only shows itself if I exert myself in any way at all - you know, ...
The One Where I Got My Hair Cut
Here’s a lesson for anybody who’s thinking about having children - getting my hair cut this morning took three and a half hours. While I might have been sat ...
Nothing To Report
I wish I had something more interesting to report than “life is going on”. Close friends have probably gathered as much by my absence from the social network...
Night Off
Tonight was needed. A night away from doing anything, after days - weeks even - of thinking I should be somewhere else, doing something else.
Sunday Ironing Hell
What wasI thinking of last night when I told W that I would do the ironing today? After six hours of ironing, the washing machine and dryer still going, and ...
Random Questions On A Saturday Morning
It’s been a while since I’ve done this kind of blog post, but in the absence of anything more interesting to share this morning, here you go…
First Real Friend
This afternoon our eldest was supposedto be painting a blown egg for a competition at school. I’m not sure who’s idea it really was to take part - Little Mis...
The Grand Tour Unlimited Budget No Ties
A friend asked me a fascinating question earlier today - if you had an unlimited budget, and no ties, where would you like to go - what destinations would yo...
The Washing Up Mountain Before And After
While I often write about my hatred of washing up, while stood contemplating the task at hand this evening, it occurred to me that my phone was in my pocket,...
Finding Friends In Times Of Trouble
While sat at home feeling sorry for myself yesterday afternoon (off sick again) I looked at my watch, and some flag got raised in my subconscious that somebo...
Off Sick Again
Lunchtime
Another Desk In Another Office
It’s all change in software developerville for the next few weeks. In order to help collaboration with colleagues I’m working closely with over the next few ...
Goodbye Sunday Morning
It’s Sunday morning (just), I’ve been up for hours - doing this, doing that - and a short time window has appeared where I’m not being expected to be somewhe...
Friday Night And Saturday Morning
I sat at work yesterday, thunking my way through a pretty complex pile of javascript, jQuery, webservices, and server side code, and the day vanished in fron...
Tron Legacy And The Closing Of A 25 Year Circle
I finally got around to watching Tron Legacy last night. All I can say is wow. It’s probably worth explaining that I was always going to be biased towards it...
Kicking Back Avoiding The Burn Out
I’m taking ten minutes out from programming the world to a standstill (Javascript, jQuery, and Webservices have been the poisons of the morning) to surf the ...
Searching For Life And Sharing My Story
Last week I figuratively drew a chalk line across the road that told my story for seven years on the internet, and started from scratch.
Im Not Talking To You Ever Again
I arrived from my windswept bike ride home in pretty dismal spirits. It’s quite amazing how being pulled from pillar to post during the day, and headbanging ...
The Universe Likes Me This Morning
Somebody, somewhere atop mount Olympushas flicked a switch this morning(insert appropriate godly location for your belief system - Olympus presented itself t...
Drawing A Line Under Adventures Past
After spending the best part of an hour this evening investigating the various reasons my old blog posts might not import into Blogger, I’m taking a brave an...
Sunday Morning On Naboo
Normally Sunday mornings would find me in the playpark while the children race back and forth on rollerskates, skateboards, or bikes, competing for my attent...
Has Anybody Seen My Saturday
Do you ever have those days where you reach the end, and it seems you’ve achieved nothing? I’m having one of those days.
Far Flung Friend
After doing a little re-wiring of the internet firmament yesterday lunchtime ahead of this post, I received a somewhat puzzled email from a long time interne...
The Carnival Of Death
Late yesterday evening I sat at the dining table with the laptop, checking email before going to bed. The catflap made it’s “clunk clunk” noise heralding the...
Free Beer At The Brewery
It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it - a chance to visit a brewery and drink free beer all evening. And yet that’s exactly what I did last night with my...
Pancake Day
Guess who found himself walking to the corner shop at 7:15am this morning to buy eggs, and guess who’s other half was making pancakes at 7:30am.You’re probab...
Taking A Walk
While buried in programming code at my desk, I tend to lose myself. Before I know it, I’ve forgotten to eat lunch, or not even got up from my desk for hours....
Skating On Sunday Morning
As I begin hitting the keys, it’s just gone 11:30am, and Sunday Morning has almost gone. Simon and Garfunkel are filling the study with sound, sun is streami...
Refilling The Wash Bag
I don’t know if all guys work the same way as me, but I tend to keep using stuff until I’m out of virtually everything, then resupply. Today was resupply day.
Bikeability Cycling Proficiency
This weekend sees our eldest attending a bicycle training course at her school. We were up bright and early, making her a packed lunch, finding her warm clot...
David Arquette Crashes Car And Witnesses Take Photos Instead Of Helping
What the hell is happening to the world? This evening David Arquette was involved in a car crash, and the bystanders took photos of him rather than check he ...
The One Where Everybody Forgot
This morning happened just like any other morning. Literally. Got up, shower, dressed, hit the kitchen for breakfasts, lunches, washing up, then brushing kid...
The One Where My Mobile Phone Bricked Itself
While the “Welcome to O2” screen is quite pretty, I actually expect a lot more from my mobile phone than being a glorified torch. The title of the post has a...
Happy To Be Outside Apples Reality Distortion Field On The Morning Ofthe Ipad 2 Release
It’s going to be an interesting day - a day to avoid the internet perhaps. Even sat here in the UK, several hours ahead of the US east coast waking up the we...
Its Not Their Fault They Do Not Know The Birdsong From The Radio
I awoke biefly at about 5:30 this morning, and found myself listening to something I’ve not heard so early in the morning for months.
Memories Of The Adoption Process
I’ve spent the last hour or so reading my own blog posts from late 2007 and early 2008 - the months when our adoption quest came to an end, and little people...
Three More Chickens And One Chicken Down
At about midnight last night I heard what I thought was a cat fight in the garden. I wandered through the house and discovered W stood at the patio doors, sh...
The One Where The Pub Sends Me A Birthday Card And The Promise Of Afree Pint
How do you live this one down? I received a card this morning from the “Marlow Donkey” - our local pub. “The Donkey” -as we refer to it - is the pub we used ...
Mcdonalds Equals Rocket Fuel For A Given Value Of Five Year Old
At quarter to eleven this morning I found myself trudging through the spitting rain with our youngest to deliver her to a friend’s house for the day. She pro...
Looking Back Our Adoption Journey
The beginning of February marked the third anniversary of our quota of children increasing from zero to three. The anniversary of our life being tipped upsid...
There Has Been An Accident
This morning started quietly. The clock radio cranked itself into life at 7am, the sun filled the bedroom with soft light, and the silhouette of a little per...
Wednesday Night Becomes Thursday Morning
As the clock ticks through to the early hours, and I’m still sitting here, coughing, sniffing, and attempting to fight a pretty bad head cold, I’m thinking I...
Unexpected Entertainment From Cupertino
When the first tweets rang out across the twitterverse this morning about the online Apple Store closing it’s doors for a few hours, I informed my colleagues...
Running On Expectation
At 7am this morning I really wasn’t looking forward to the idea of scraping myself out of bed. Having already missed a day of work, and not feeling quite so ...
Were Back
I am supposed to be back in the office tomorrow - however, unless some kind of miracle occurs overnight, it might be a little short lived. I’m running a HUGE...
To Begin Again
Three thousand posts, seven years, multiple platforms, multiple technologies - all directed towards one rather ordinary goal : to delivery my thoughts to you...
Off Sick
As predicted, the cold arrived during the night with several big lads, and has set about extracting as much snot as possible during the day so far - often ac...
Time With Friends
It’s heading towards 9am on my final day off from work, and I’m trying to wake up. The children are slowly appearing from their bedroom, stumbling through th...
Aaarrggghhh
The Tumblr theme bugs resurfaced this morning and destroyed the theme I was using.
First Full Day At My Parents
We are in the south west of England for a few days (we travel home Tuesday night) visiting my parents. The plan wasto do nothing for a few days. That will be...
Tumblr Radar
While digging through old photos last night, I turned up this shot - notice what’s on the screen - it’s the Tumblr Radar - a feature they dropped about 2 yea...
Watson
Watson is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever,...
Thoughts About Blogging
Since putting my personal blog of seven years on ice a few weeks ago, I have been wondering just how stupid I am to have continued on in any shape or form at...
Motivation Reaching A Low Ebb
Do you have days when you have no words to share, and very little motivation to share anything anyway?
The Office
The Office
Our Words Will Live On After We Are Gone
It’s been too long since I last emptied my head into the blog. Work, life, chores, and children seem to have been chewing me up and spitting me out in small ...
Afflicted
The morning at work is rapidly vanishing up its own backside I discovered a virus on my work desktop machine yesterday - which triggered a full scan of the s...
Reality
I spent most of yesterday afternoon fighting the worst headache I’ve had in quite some time. While cycling home I had to get off my bike and walk because I t...
Love Actually
It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters...
From Blackberry To Android
Following my Blackberry going missing at the swimming pool this weekend, I did some mental arithmetic and figured out the cost of a new contract was less tha...
Primary School Charity Night
I don’t get some people. At all.
Why Did It Have To Suddenly Get So Complicated
Until this week it was all so simple. I was going to wait until my mobile phone contract ends in October, and get a Google Nexus S.
This Is Getting Ever So Slightly Vexing Tumblr
I edited the HTML of my tumblr theme earlier (to add site verification for the Bing Webmaster Tools), and it completely scrambled the contents of the custom ...
Thoughts On The Verizon Iphone
I’ve been reading the news story about the Verizon iPhone with interest over the last few weeks - and wondering why huge swathes of America went down the rou...
The One Where Tumblr Arsed My Theme Up Again
I tried to make one change to the theme, and it completely randomized the configuration of the colours and various constants within the theme.
Study
Our study smells. Not of anything particularly bad - it just smells. Of dust. The old room smell that happens if windows are not opened often, and nobody “li...
Location Location Location
A friend on Tumblr asked where I am located on the wonderful spinning ball of mudearlier. Any excuse to avoid working on this ten year old javascript.
Hooked
Damn you, people of the internet, what have you done to my brain?
Finally 2 More Miles
After failing conspicuously to get out of bed this morning early enough to go for a run, I managed to escape at about 8:30pm for a couple of miles running th...
Cycling In The Rain
Tonight was one of those nights when swimming was probably an easier method of getting home from work than cycling. The rain didn’t so much as fall, as perme...
Adding Subscriptions
I added a load of subscription goodness to the blog today via the lovely folks at Feedburner (umm I guess that would be Google then). If you have no idea abo...
Expanding And Expounding
Following the shift of my humble tumblog to it’s own “proper” domain name - now amusing people at blog.jonbeckett.com - I thought I should perhaps fill in so...
Blogjonbeckettcom
I own the domain name jonbeckett.com. It’s a homepage of sorts on the internet - with bits and pieces of code I have written within it.
Apologies For The Interruption In Service
If you head to the public facing side of my tumblog, there’s all manner of domain jiggery pokery going on today (out of my hands) while the URL blog.jonbecke...
A Letter To Myself At 20
This letter has travelled 17 years into the past to find your hands. You are single, you live with your parents, you have just left college, and you are work...
750 Words For Wednesday
It’s been a while since I attempted 750 words, but better late than never, right?
Voyage To The Planet Of Prehistoric Women
Astronauts landing on Venus encounter dangerous exotic creatures and almost meet some sexy Venusian women who like to sunbathe in hip-hugging skin-tight pant...
Truthful Tuesday
I’m not usually one for memes, but have ten minutes to kill before the end of the day, and am unlikely to make much headway with anything new - having just r...
Damn You Rim Damn You Blackberry
My crappy Blackberry crashed this morning after inviting me to update the app store on it. It was the sort of crash that you can’t recover from and luckily (...
Very Very Tired
Sat up watching the Superbowl until the beginning of the fourth quarter. I guessed when Pittsburgh got intercepted that they had no chance, and was proven ri...
Save Me
from this interminably boring coding. I’m tired, I don’t want to be doing this, it’s boring, and I’m fed up. Woe is me. Boo hoo, and all that.
On Repeat
Somebody has pressed the “repeat” button on my life at the moment. Each day is approximately the same as the last;
Survived My First Run In Years
In spite of the new running shoes turning up and being too small, I dug my old ones out (which are destroyed, but still), and figured it wouldn’t hurt to run...
Sunday Morning
It’s 9am, the kids are fed, the TV is pumping some kind of rubbish at them across the lounge, I’m showered, washed, shaved, teeth brushed, dressed (if you ca...
Movie Moments That Stay With You
I was just reading a post by Stephie Hell about Karate Kid, and it got me thinking about “movie moments that stay with you”. You know - the scenes that chang...
Hungry
Sat here waiting for better half to arrive home with her brother. They are picking up indian food on the way home from the pub.I haven’t eaten since lunchtim...
Blackberry Messenger
At some point in the distant past, I got rid of my second broken iPhone, and switched to Blackberry. Apart from being humungously shit at anything except mes...
10 More Awesome Tumblrs
The most recent results of my expeditionary attempts to discover the interesting, thought provoking, and original within the Tumblrsphere. The following were...
Thinking About Ditching Wordpress For Tumblr
I’ve been thinking about doing this for some time. I’ve been writing a blog online since 2003 - first on my own script, and latterly on whichever blog platfo...
Thank The Maker Its Friday
Do you ever have days where you can’t really concentrate on anything? Where everything seems just a bit too much like hard work to make any progress - or eve...
Originality
The suckage amazes me. I just spent the best part of half an hour digging through random tags at the tumblweed website, checking ten blogs at a time to see i...
It Is Done
I just put the notice up on the front of jonbeckett.wordpress.com. I guess this means I’m “officially” a citizen of Tumblr now which I guess also means I nee...
Firework
While cycling in to work this morning, Katy Perry’s “Firework” was blasting into my ears, and I thought about a friend who mentioned the church he goes to sa...
Apparently Im A Born Teacher
Astronomy night with the brownies went well. So well in fact that our 7 year old said this on the way home;
Why Do I Do This To Myself
I just ordered some New Balance running shoes. I’m also going to send in the entry form for our local 5 mile running race - it takes place in May, so it will...
Uk Crime Statistics
The police in the UK launched a website yesterday showing up-to-date instances of crime right down to street level. Interesting to see that there’s one hotsp...
The One Where Google Charge Me For A Domain I Dont Own Any More
A couple of years ago I maintained a technical blog called “Bag of Spanners”. It served as a notebook of bits and pieces of code I had figured out, and that ...
Reality Resum
A fantastically stupid idea occurred to me this morning, and would make a pretty good meme. Write yourself a “real” list of skills for yourself.
Offloading Secrets
Well not really “secrets” as such - I don’t really do “secrets” - I’m pretty much an open book. More a case of “things people don’t know, and that don’t crop...
Google Docs Gets An Update
I just looked in on Google Docs, and noticed the document list has received a huge upgrade Just when I start thinking Google are guilty of sitting on their h...
Followers
Somebody asked me the other day how to get the list of followers out of Tumblr - and I shook my head. It’s one of the things that’s missing from the API, mea...
Asp Classic
Warning: this post contains geeky stuff. To ward off sudden attacks of narcolepsy, look away now.
Apple Its Our Football
Has anybody else read the story breaking this morning about Apple changing the terms of the App Store? It looks like iPhone or iPad applications will no long...
Social Networking A Personal History
I don’t often think of myself as using social networking much. Sure, I have accounts almost everywhere, but that’s more to do with reserving my name should I...
Embracing Your Inner Weirdness
While tangled up with the routine, chores, and requirements that fall upon us as expectation earlier, I became increasingly frustrated about the lack of time...
Books I Still Havent Read
The above books have been sat on the shelf now for well over a year, and are getting no closer to being read. They sit there, looking great, looking interest...
Wine Beer Pizza Friends Win
I just returned from a supplies gathering mission at the local store. We have friends coming later armed with pizzas for a movie night. We’ve been doing this...
Moleskine Memories Of A London Commuter
In late 2006 I began a five day engagement in London, working in the heart of the city. The journey each day took two hours each way, which I filled with mus...
Recuperating
First sight this morning was of a little blonde shadow in our bedroom doorway. I can’t recall the exact conversation that ensued between her, her older siste...
In Pursuit Of The Interesting The Original And The Awesome
While holed up at home today with whatever it is I’ve caught from the children, I’ve been on another voyage of discovery across the tumblrsphere. I was aided...
Goldilocks Has A Lot To Answer For
While sat here in the study at home, in an otherwise empty house, I finally realised the reason I’m having trouble typing, and that I can’t feel my toes is b...
The One Where We Survive A Change Of Broadband Supplier
When I arrived home from work yesterday evening, a parcel had arrived from Orange - a new Netgear broadband router. As part of our continuing efforts to save...
200 Followers
And so it came to pass, on this day, that 200 people had thus far mistakenly clicked the “follow” instead of “like” button on my tumblog.
Revisiting The Backpack
I wrote a blog post last summer about the contents of my backpack while travelling with work. I thought it might be interesting to revisit it - six months on...
Revisiting My Backpack
I wrote a blog post last summer about the contents of my backpack while travelling with work. I thought it might be interesting to revisit it - six months on...
Dipping A Toe Into Facebook Again
About a year ago I unfollowed everybody in my Facebook “friends” list, and began building back people I care about. With that in mind, and the amazing people...
Shhh Its So Damn Quiet
Sat here, in the lounge, on my own. Other half is at something to do with the school. Kids are in bed asleep, television is off, and I’m noodling around on t...
Random Information
Height - 6ft 3C/3
Morning Brings Peace And A Haircut
Looking back over my posts last night, I must have been in a hell of a foul mood. I knowthe team at Tumblr is small (probably smaller than the company I work...
Introducing The Beckett Theme For Tumblr
Over lunchtime I’ve been tinkering with the theme my own tumblog is based on, and am making it available to the community as the “Beckett” theme.
Tumblr Listen Before Its Too Late
The web startups on the west coast you seem to like comparing yourself with are significantly different in one regard.They care about what they are doing, an...
Teuxdeux Goes Down And Not In A Good Way
Over the last week or so, I’ve been playing with an online task management tool called TeuxDeux. Since I got in to work this morning, their website has been ...
Ok Now Im Annoyed
I posted to the official Tumblr support email address earlier, asking for an estimate on the server scaling they wrote about late last year (they mentioned t...
Mork Calling Orson
While the international nature of Tumblr is fantastic, it occurred to me this evening that it might be interesting to find a few people to follow a little cl...
Has Anybody Seen The Weekend
Seriously… has anybody seen my weekend anywhere? I’m sure it was due to arrive at the end of Friday. I checked the doormat. I even checked down the side of t...
Goodbye Weekend
This entire weekend has vanished up it’s own ass so fast it’s almost unfathomable. It hasn’t been all bad though. I just finished putting the kids to bed aft...
A Note To Those Following Me
Over the past few weeks - since I started dumping my ever inconsequential thoughts into Tumblr - a strange thing has happened. People have started following ...
Thinking About Building Something Awesome
Wouldn’t it be great if there was an open directory, where anybody could post Tumblogs, or posts they like, as often as they like? Kind of like an open direc...
Goodbye Weekend It Was Nice Not Knowing You
This entire weekend has vanished up it’s own ass so fast it’s almost unfathomable. It hasn’t been allbad though. I just finished putting the kids to bed afte...
Generation A By Douglas Coupland
Bought this from the Kindle store last night. Completely forgot I did it until I noticed the receipt in my email this morning.
Waking Up
This morning began with a young blonde jumping on top of me and giggling. Before you raise an eyebrow, she’s five years old and smells of strawberry shampoo ...
Tfi Friday
Just got in from work. It’s been a fairly brainiac end to the week; trying to understand and add to a mass of code that has been mashed up over many months, ...
6 Punctures In 4 Days
This is getting a bit silly. I was late in to work this morning because the bike had a flat on the way home last night, and after fixing it, and checking ove...
Pedalling Like Mad Going Nowhere
While cycling home from work this evening, a flash of paranoia made me hop the front wheel of the bike in the air. It hit the ground softly. Shit.
100 Hot Chocolate
I just made a cup of Green & Blacks organic 100% cocoa hot chocolate, with full cream milk, laced with unrefined sugar. I am going to die of a heart atta...
The Process Of Tinkering Continues
I just wasted half my lunch break at work tinkering with the theme of my tumblog. I now have drop-shadows under the posts (if you’re looking at the front-end...
I Come In Peace
Greetings to all those I have begun following over the past few weeks - an odyssey that has opened my eyes to the awesome community that exists at Tumblr is ...
At The End Of The Day
It’s just gone 9pm, and I’m sat in the study, wondering where the day went. “Sparks” by “The Who” is playing in the background, I have a glass of Brandy (slo...
Truthful Tuesday Starring Kent The Banjo Cat
I have been reading some wonderfully candid posts from those I follow as part of the “Truthful Tuesday” meme, so thought it might be interesting for new foll...
The Four Cornered Triangle Of The Social Networking Apocalypse
In the last year I have been something of an online vagrantwandering the streets of the various blogging platforms, trying to find a place to likea place to ...
Instant Messaging Procrastination Nirvana
If you would like to help me procrastinate this afternoon, feel free to add me on any of the following networks;
Why Is It So Hard
I just spent the best part of half an hour going through perhaps 200 tumblr accounts, looking for new and interesting people to follow. All I found was reblo...
The Path Of Discovery Continues
I’ve written about my search for the inspiring, the interesting, the original, and the (probably) insane enough recently; time to share the results of the pa...
One Time Use No Questions Asked
A friend of mine on the other side of the planet introduced me to a novel idea some years ago. Let me explain:
Monday Morning Mayhem
Waking up and dragging myself out of bed this morning was hard. I suspect it might have had somethingto do with yesterday - where the greater part of the day...
Considering A Switch
I began blogging around the same time the term “blog” first become common. Since then my words have lived at Vox, Yahoo 360, Orkut, LiveJournal, Blogger, Wor...
Remembering Marilyn
While digging through some old emails earlier, I stumbled across this one; written to a blog that doesn’t exist any more about 18 months ago (I think).
On Any Sunday
7:00am
Aspiring To Mediocrity
I caught myself looking at the visitor statistics on this tumblr account earlier. It occurred to me that it would be all too easy to become obsessed with gai...
The Best Of Us
The last couple of days have hit me like an imaginary freight train. I nearly fell asleep listening to our eldest daughter read at bedtime. She’s reading an ...
If We Were All The Same We Wouldnt Be Interesting
While I may have intimated earlier that most of us prepare the best version of ourselves for public consumption, I completely ignored the others.
A Hug Is Worth A Thousand Words A Friend Is Worth More
The anonymous question I received this morning from a far flung admirer got me thinking about friendship in general, and how the modern world seems to have d...
The Quest For Originality
Is it just me, or do some people do nothing but reblog? It’s no accident that Tumblr sent a number of bloggers on an all expenses paid trip to New York Fashi...
Reading Stories
Our seven year old has two friends staying over tonight for their first ever sleepover. We tried really hard to let them burn themselves out - we really did.
Little Miss 7
At just gone 6am the silhouette of a slightly bigger girl appeared in our bedroom doorway and woke us with the words “can we go downstairs?”
Warningoverload Warningoverload
For the last week or so I have been working on a pretty significant software development project for the future. It didn’t start out that complicated - what ...
Warning Overload Warning Overload
For the last week or so I have been working on a pretty significant software development project for the future. It didn’t start out that complicated - what ...
The Other Stuff
I thought this might make a good topic for a post - the “other things” that are in your bag. Just to make it a bit more interesting, I figured out if I could...
Lunchtime Ruminations On Blogging
Inbetween writing swathes of programming, I have been wondering about the place my efforts should be concentrated online. Over the last few years I have ende...
How To Seo Optimize Tumblr
I was looking at my Tumblr stats in Google Analytics the other evening, and wondered why they are so poor - why very little traffic finds it’s way to my tumb...
The Desk Of Holding
I saw the meme “TMI Tuesday” earlier on somebody elses Tumblog, and it neatly solved the question of “what pointless garbage can I share with the tumblr comm...
Deathly Hallows
I finally escaped this evening to watch the latest Harry Potter movie on the big screen, accompanied by a wonderful friend and fellow fan of the books.
The Cart Before The Horse
I have been wondering recently how I have managed to write online for 7 years, and - perhaps more amazingly - how I’ve managed to keep hold of the majority o...
In Search Of 50 Amazing People
Unofficial quest for the next few weeks find another 50 great people to follow on Tumblr - in a rather random crusade to follow as many people as are followi...
11 More Awesome Tumblrs
In the spirit of reaching out a little further (read: extending the desperate death grip), and doing things by the example of the guitarist in Spinal Tap, I’...
Unfollowing
I had to unfollow somebody today. I didn’t do it lightly, and I’m still wondering about it now.
Tinkering With Drupal
Still tinkering with jonbeckett.com - at least I have the aggregator working now (after hacking the Drupal 7 database - it didn’t like the long titles of Tum...
Achieved Today
Installed Drupal on jonbeckett.com
Where The Hell Did Saturday Go
How on earth is it nearly midnight already?
Three Themes For Tumblr
While monkeying with Tumblr recently, I have somehow ended up making three different themes
Currently Reading The Right Stuff By Tom Wolfe
One of the books I’ve always known about, read bits of over the years, but never knuckled down and read cover-to-cover. In the 80s it was turned into the won...
I Very Angry With You And Goodbye
A couple of evenings ago while washing up the dinner things, I heard the outbreak of war in our living room - or at least the version of war that occurs betw...
Working From Home
Today finds me sat in the study at home once more, on account of the offices at work undergoing something of a renovation. The office I would normally reside...
Tumblr Community Unexpectedly Awesome
Although I’ve been a member of Tumblr since it was still in beta, I have only really immersed myself in the community recently. I think I first heard about i...
Time For A Coffee
After having my head in and out of C# and SQL all morning and most of the afternoon, I’m taking a few minutes out to have a coffee a really terrible instant ...
An Admission
I have no excuses with drawing, and should perhaps do it far more. I did art at college years ago. It’s the one thing I’ve always been able to just do - much...
12 Awesome Tumblrs
Following my recent journey of discovery on Tumblr (read: a concerted effort to find real people that share their thoughts), I hit upon a novel idea. Perhaps...
In Search Of Interesting People
I have somehow reached the point with Tumblr where I have far more people following me than I am following, and I’m not altogether happy about that. In order...
Impressed With Long Forgotten Code
About six months ago I started noodling around with some top secret programming (I was going to write “secret squirrel programming”, but guessed that nobody ...
An Invitation To Ask Questions
I did this once before, a very long time ago, and it proved remarkably entertaining (if a little foolhardy).
The Professional Theme Keeps Getting Rejected By Tumblr
I have a horrible feeling the reason my “Professional” theme for Tumblr is not clearing the hurdle for the theme garden is because of the social links.
Solving The Tumblr Custom Property Problem
I just discovered a workaround for the extremely annoying bug in the Tumblr theme “custom property” feature.
An Amazing Evening A Strange Day And An Even More Strange Week Ahead
Yesterday evening I went to the local theatre with our children and the leader of Rainbows (young brownies/guides) to see the pantomime production of “Peter ...
10 Random Questions
10 random questions, garnered from the vast stockpile that I once discovered online, and answered for your interest and amusement
This Is Normal
A conversation that happened early this morning with our eldest…
In Other News
I will neither confirm or deny that I just created a fork of the theme my own tumblog is based on for the use of fashion, design and/or art blogs.
Sunday Morning
I’m sat here in my Hong Kong Fooey t-shirt, wondering what to do with myself. The younger children are already up, eldest is still fast asleep, other half is...
Molly Ringwald Had The End Of Pretty In Pink Rewritten Who Knew
I had never heard this story before you want to know why Molly Ringwald suddenly vanished at the height of her fame? She insisted that John Huston have the e...
Embracing The Bazaar Crowdsourcing The Theme
After a day tinkering with HTML and CSS, following my nose rather than a carefully evolved design, I have ended up with a half-respectable Tumblr theme. If y...
2010 In Review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The One Where I Submitted The Theme To The Tumblr Theme Directory
I doubt very much that there are any staff beyond skeleton support staff at Tumblr today, so don’t expect the theme this blog is based on to appear any time ...
Read Write And Engage
While playing with Tumblr over the last few days, I have been reminded how great the community is, how much creativity is going on, and how much more people ...
New Year Free Time Tinkering
It was predictable really, wasn’t it. Given a few days off work, what happens? A new theme for Tumblr is what happens…
2010
Designing A New Tumblr Theme
For reasons best known to myself (read: I have no idea why), I’m building a new Tumblr theme - mainly because I didn’t like the free ones I can find, and I’m...
A Final Post For 2010
One hour remains of 2010 at the time of writing. We’re sat watching Return of the Jedi with our ten your old daughter. The younger children are fast asleep i...
Wondering What To Do With Myself
It’s the Thursday between Christmas and New Year, and I’m back in the office - wondering what to do with myself. I have no scheduled work as such, so I’m usi...
Unexpected Win Of The Day Crashplan
I’ve been tooling around with various methods of backing up the enormous amount of semi-precious data we’ve got floating around at home - photos of the kids,...
The One Where I Went Back To Work
It’s the Thursday between Christmas and New Year, and I’m back in the office, with no specific project to work on - the age old tradition of being here “just...
Being Interesting Is Difficult Sometimes
Tumblr is great fun, and the community is great, but do you ever feel that your life is just a little bit crappy from time to time, and that it’s not going t...
The One Where I Decimated My Tumblr Following List
In line with the earlier re-write of my about page here at Tumblr, I took a dispassionate look at the scarily huge list of tumblogs I have followed in the pa...
Reworking The About Page
Perhaps it’s that time of year. I just spent half an hour ripping pages out of this Tumblr account, and re-writing the about page. Hopefully it makes things ...
Is Reblogging Lazy
In recent days, while wasting time on the internet (something of a pastime around here), I have been reblogging the odd poster or cartoon that I liked. It do...
Stupid Ideas
Instead of buying an external hard drive for W to back her Mac up, I decided to be clever and bought a “Western Digital MyBook World Edition” - which is supp...
Christmas
I thought this was perhaps the funniest of our Christmas photos, so decided to share. Before anybody calls the social services, she was drinking fizzy orange.
2 More Sleeps
It’s just gone 8:30pm, and the children are already in bed. When they wake up tomorrow morning there will only be one more sleep until Christmas - and tomorr...
The One Where The Sky Fell On Me
Yesterday evening I looked outside, saw the clear sky, knew I had to go to the local garage for milk and bread, so asked our eldest if she wanted to accompan...
Tears At Bedtime
While W ran downstairs to heat up the various lavender scented beanies for the younger children’s beds this evening, I kept an ear out from the study to make...
Why Does Everything Have To Have So Much Wrong With It
It’s been a while since I had an out-and-out rant in a blog post, but this has been brewing in the darker corners of my mind for months, if not years.
Winter Arrives With A Vengeance
It started yesterday afternoon, with a cloud burst that covered the ground for miles around with perhaps an inch of snow. That inch was then deep frozen, and...
The One Where I Went Back With A Hacksaw And Bolt Cutters
If you either don’t follow me on Facebook (you totally should), or you didn’t see my status update the day before yesterday, let me relate a little story to ...
To Kindle Or Not To Kindle
Ignoring the fact that I’ve not written here for days, I keep seeing the picture of the Amazon Kindle at the top of their webpage. As much as I keep telling ...
Rarely Here
I sometimes wonder why so many people follow me on Tumblr - I’m very rarely here any more my blog gets piped in automagically, but otherwise it’s just anothe...
A Good Thing Or A Bad Thing
I just filled out an online survey at Google (you can do the same here). The results kind of speak for themselves, don’t they.
1337 Is Elite
This gives some insight into the depths of my geekiness. I just glanced down at the time, and noticed it was 13:37.
Some Mornings Just Happen Like That
It’s 8:55am, I’m sat in the office, so I’m guessing writing 750 words this morning is going to make me 10 minutes late (at minimum) starting work… ah well. I...
Random Statistics
Don’t ask me why the idea to compile this came over me… the following graph show the number of posts and words per month since I started blogging.
Damn Fool Crusades On A Sunday Morning
Have you ever written a blog post title before considering what you might write about ? Because that’s what I just did (and this post has already gone to the...
Another 750 Words
You know how I said I would probably not cross-post the 750 words I threw into the same titled internet thing this morning? Ahem….
750 Words For Sunday 5Th
The morning started at 8am with the arrival of a certain untidily blonde haired five year old appearing at the foot of our bed, and then climbing up my legs ...
Armageddon And New Beginnings
Apart from the obvious biblical references, most dictionaries define “Armageddon” as variations on “the end of all things”, and that’s exactly what has occur...
750 Words
I discovered a rather fun website called 750 words earlier this evening (while looking at reverb10, which Pammer pointed me towards). The following 750 words...
Back Soon
Having completed the idiotic month of inconsequential blog posts, otherwise known rather ridiculously as NaBloPoMo, I’m slowing things down a bit.
Monday Becomes Tuesday
This is probably the closest I have come to failure at this whole “post every day during November” malarky. It’s approaching 11pm, and I’ve finally got the c...
Have Headache Will Sit Quietly
It’s Sunday afternoon, and the rest of the family have headed off to visit their grandparents. Owing to me being pretty fantastically ill, but not really goi...
Following On Buzz
The matrix below shows the various people I am following on Google Buzz. As befits a software developer, I built a simple tool to generate the mosaic below -...
Doped Up Wrapped Up And Ready To Fight The Slings And Arrows
It’s Saturday morning, I’m doped up on “Max Strength” cold and flu remedy, wrapped up like an eskimo, and facing the prospect of taking the children to the l...
Dont Stop Believing
Earlier this evening I heard a wonderful song from a more innocent age, and it got me thinking…
Hospitals Errands And Running Yourself Ragged
It is with tremendous relief that I can report that our youngest - Little Miss 5 - is home, in her bed, and sleeping soundly after a day spent in hospital. S...
Thanksgiving And Royal Weddings
For many of my friends on the other side of the ball of mud we inhabit, Thursday is “Thanksgiving”. Due to my geographical displacement, which leads to an en...
Reclaiming My Inbox Sort Of
I have lots of email accounts. These days it’s almost unavoidable if you want to either have a presence, or protect your username in the various social netwo...
Reprising A Book Reading Memethe Bbc Big Read
A number of memes have been doing the rounds on Facebook recently, inviting people to highlight the books they have read from a long list. Among the variatio...
Reading Books And The Amazon Kindle
Every time I login to the Amazon online storewhere I freely admit to buying most thingspurely because I trust their logistics and distribution more than anyb...
This Isnt Falling This Is Failing With Style
The day began prettyinauspiciouslywhen I heard the refuse collectors drive past, and realised I hadn’t put the bins out, despite numerous reminders from my m...
2003 To 2010 A Restrospective
Given the discovery of the earliest days of my blogging exploits last night, I thought it might be fun to skim the archives, and pull back a post from each y...
The Past Rediscovered
While tidying up files in the depths of the computer earlier, I started delving through a folder titled “canned” - representing projects that had at some poi...
Time For A Change Of Banner And A New Messenger Bag
Is this a final “look and feel” for the blog? Probably not, but it’s a step in the right direction. Something a little more personal; a little less abstract....
Rediscovering Google Buzz
A relatively new online acquaintance popped up on my screen this morning asking “who is this Jonathan Beckett, and why is he so interesting?” - the ensuing c...
A Good Deed For The Day
Quite by chance this morning I decided to get my hair cut. Knowing that the place I normally go wouldn’t be open until at least 9am, I completed the school r...
William Henry Gates Becomes A Modern Hero
During my final year at college, we were ushered into the server room one day to look at a desktop machine running a new operating system. An alien interface...
Want To Know A Secret Steve Jobs Study Is Just As Untidy As Yours
When I first saw the photo below, I thought “YES!”…
Oh No Not More Random Questions
In keeping with the seemingly insatiable appetite for the mundane, I present another selection of random questions with my two penneth shared…
Aboutme Lets Me Through The Doors
A little while ago I signed up for a new internet “landing page” service thing, and then promptly forgot all about it. Just before collapsing into bed last n...
Thinking About Giving The Blog A Title
This blog doesn’t really have a title, does it. “jonbeckett @ wordpress” kind of states the obvious. Although the URL is deliberately in-line with my twitter...
Ignorance Of The Origins Of The Internet
I’ve just been reading this article in a national newspaper, covering Vint Cerf’s remarks about the IPv4 addresses running out. The article is fine, and the ...
Where For Art Thou Saturday
Oh Saturday, Saturday, where for art thou Saturday?
So Heres The Thing
This month I’m taking part in “National Blog Posting Month” - also known as NaBloPoMo. There’s a website hosted at Ning, and a lot of bloggers taking part… o...
1Am
It’s just gone 1am at the time of writing, and I should be asleep - I guess this post proves I am not.Not quite sure why I am becoming such a night owl of la...
Social Networking A Personal History
I don’t often think of myself as using social networking much. Sure, I have accounts almost everywhere, but that’s more to do with reserving my name should I...
The One Where Instant Messaging Became Social Networking
At some point late this afternoon while checking my code in at work, Windows Live Messenger popped up asking if I wanted to upgrade to “Windows Live Messenge...
The Flu Jab And The Ignorant Army
This morning at work a nurse arrived to administer a flu jab to anybody that wanted it. I wandered straight down (even though I wasn’t on the list), and afte...
Another Day In The Life
Could this really be a “day in the life” post at long last?
Rain Rain Go Away Come Again Another Day
There’s a quote about balance in Nature, isn’t there. I was reminded of it this morning while peering out of the landing window across the green where we liv...
Choosing A Bag For The New Netbook
Following the recent “Dance of the Laptops” (conducted to the music of the Polvotsian Dances by Borodin)throughout various members of our household following...
A Walk In The Woods
Given that friends are always telling me that I should post more photos, our trip to the local woods this morning handed just such an opportunity.
The One Where I Bought Myself A New Netbook
Since the old netbook vanished into our eldest daughter’s room, I have been without a mobile computer of my own. I had been using the Dell laptop we bought a...
Mailed By Chimp
I’ve been writing a blog in one form or another on the internet since about 2003, and have records of posts stretching back to about 2006. Idiotically, I did...
Cooks Source Awakens The Kraken
Inbetween picking away at some freelance webdesign work last night, a story crept from the sleepy backwaters of the internet, across LiveJournal, then Twitte...
Tilt Shift Photography
A little while ago I saw a photographic trick on the internet called “Tilt Shift” - a subtle change you can make to photographs to fool your brain into think...
Taking Tumblr Off Automatic
I’ve stopped piping the wordpress and twitter posts into Tumblr - it’s really crap at presenting them properly.
If You Could Have A Superpower What Would You Choose
While talking to a fellow blogging friend earlier about the dearth of bloggable things happening in my life at the moment (not the best situation to find you...
On The Road Again
Tiredness. That’s the overriding feeling. It’s been a while since I’ve done a 6am start, and a day pretending to know what I’m on about in front of professio...
The Irish Pub Formulation
My other half takes great delight in making parallels between Sheldon Cooper, one of the principal characters in the TV show “The Big Bang Theory”, and me. W...
Things That Go Bump In The Night Or The Year The Childrenfinally Got Halloween
I’m not quite sure what happened this year, but our children seemed to really “get” the wholeHalloween thingfor the first time. They were more excited about ...
Halloween
Just to clear this up
Tumblr Vs Wordpress
A few days ago I had 3000 people visit my wordpress blog. What’s more, many of them engaged with the content, commented, and have continued to return.
Saturday Night
It’s the weekend before “National Blog Posting Month” begins, and I’ve been picking away at a freelance project throughout most of the day.
Pedal Power
Not many people know that I cycle to and from work every day - a six mile round trip that takes me through suburban streets, a busy town, and into the countr...
Halloween Approaches
After walking in the door from work last night, I was asked “did you see them?”. “See what?”… an audience of puzzled and dismayed faces looked hopefully back.
Reaching Out To The Community
Following an influx of new visitors to my personal blog over the last 24 hours, I have been taking on Darren Rowse’s advice (he of ProBlogger fame), and reac...
November Nablopomo Nanowrimo
It just occurred to me that the title of this post might make you wonder about my spelling skills. I obviously can’t spell November at all. I can’t even lay ...
When Inspiration Strikes
Why is writing sometimes easy, and sometimes hard? Why do the words come so easily sometimes, and not without great effort at others?
The One Where My Blog Got Featured On The Front Page Of Wordpresscom
While making drinks for my colleagues at lunchtime today, I was gazing out of the window (waiting for the kettle to boil) when a rather marvellous and totall...
The Greatest Aptitude Test Ever Invented
While making a drink for my colleagues this morning, a thought popped into my head - an idea for the best aptitude test ever invented for interviews - a text...
Could Nanowrimo Be Attempted On Twitter
Just did some mental arithmetic
Backup And Version Control For Nanowrimo
If you’re going to take part in NaNoWriMo this year, how would you feel if your computer died half way through the competition and took your writing with it?
The One Where I Bought A Colour Laser Printer
For the past couple of years at home we have been using two printers (actually, I have seldom used either of them - most printing happens for knitting patter...
Long Time No Write
Yes, yes, I know I post random crap here almost every day at the moment, but I haven’t really written anything of substance for quite some time.
Google Chrome Tab Pinning
Who knew you can do this with Google Chrome?
Formspring
Just joined FormSpring after receiving an invite from a friend. I’ve seen it around for ages on the web, and pretty much ignored it.
Tantrums
Yesterday’s expertly engineered bedroom tidying competition never actually reached a conclusion; lunchtime eventually arrived, and I deemed refueling more im...
Sunday Afternoon
Somehow the house has returned to some kind of calm place this afternoon (after a mayhem filled morning). I’m sat in the lounge, listening to Linux Outlaws, ...
How To Fix The Well Liked Tumblr Theme Html Bug
If you’ve noticed the “Well Liked” theme layout breaks sometimes, I saw it happen again this morning, and decided to find out what was wrong with it.
Google Have Done Nothing Wrong
I can’t believe the news stories doing the rounds about Google intentionally storing network data while recording Street View mapping data. They would only h...
Single Handed Saturday
Following the departure of Mrs Beckett this morning to watch the “Great South Run” with her Mum, I am single handed this weekend for the first time in ages.
Friday Friday Friday
What is it that’s so good about Fridays? Actually I take that back. The weekend is coming, and my other half is going away - leaving me to look after the chi...
Custard Powered Nuclear Kitten Boots
I’ve been thinking more about participation in NaNoWriMo.
Nanowrimo National Novel Writing Month
The impending arrival of November also marks the arrival of National Novel Writing Month - or “NaNoWriMo”, to it’s thousands of participants.
Disclaimer Awesomeness
I threw a disclaimer page onto this tumblog earlier this morning (in reality, it’s a mashup of several other disclaimers that I found online). I guess coveri...
The Continuing Blackberry Saga
While travelling back from Reading this afternoon on the train, I took it upon myself to install the Twitter application. Mistake. The phone killed itself wi...
Blackberry Applications And Config
I’m writing this partly for my own reference in case the damn Blackberry lunches itself again. What follows is a list of the apps I have installed, and the c...
This Isnt Wasting Time This Is Procrastinating With Style
Given that I have to get up at stupid o’clock in the morning to go sit the Microsoft exam from hell, I’m wasting the end of this evening surfing Tumblr for n...
Revision Study
Apart from half an hour wandering to the school and back this morning in order to delivery the children to their various places of learning, I’ve been shut a...
Revision City
Have been revising solidly since 9am (after taking the kids to school). Now 2:15pm. Stopped for 10 minutes for lunch earlier. Still have a mountain to climb ...
Ps Stopped Studying Now
Got fed up of studying. Learned as much as I am likely to learn. Getting ready for early getaway in the morning to reach Reading way ahead of the exam time -...
This Week In Tech
Listening to “This Week In Tech” while tidying up the study. They’re talking about the lifestyle choice of the blogger, versus journalists of yore - and the ...
Pointless List Of Programming Or Markup Languages I Know Better Than Ishould
A quick rundown of the various programming languages and/or markup languages that I can program fairly proficiently in I’m not going to say that I’m particul...
Old World Journalism
Inbetween doing other things this evening, I’ve been listening to “This Week In Tech” - a quite wonderful podcast I discovered while commuting into and out o...
Impressive Spider Web Comes Crashing Down
I just wandered into the kitchen and discovered a 2ft diameter spider web hanging across the room - suspended on a masterpiece of spider architectural achiev...
I Could Think Of Better Things To Do With A Monday
Today finds me revising for a professional exam at work. It was going to be on Wednesday, but that’s now skidded out to Thursday. It remains to be seen when ...
Hippo Remote
One of my colleagues just informed me he purchased an app for his iPhone called “Hippo Remote”.
Bedtime Story
Listening to eldest daughter read - tonight’s book is “Granny’s Great Escape” (I think). Listening to the kids read works two ways - they get better at readi...
400 Posts
Not exactly the most interesting landmark to celebrate, but I can confirm that I have posted 400 times to Tumblr since re-booting the tumblog a few months ag...
10 Minute Break From Revision
Brain has had enough today for revision just went through about a third of the exam subject areas, skimming the books - looking up anything new, or that I ju...
The One Where The Blackberry Lunched Itself
While sitting on the bedroom floor of our eldest daughter earlier this evening, the Blackberry popped up a notice reminding me that FourSquare had a pending ...
Google Analytics
Just discovered I have no analytics data for the last few days for Tumblr because (a) Tumblr lost all the custom theme fields the other day for no apparent r...
The Social Network
Mostly thanks to our wonderful friends Emma and Andrew who babysat for us this evening, we escaped to the cinema for the first time in three years tonight, i...
The Big Read
In 2003, the BBC surveyed the television audience over the course of several months to find the most loved books by the general public - here’s the top 20.
How To Not Get Followed By Me
While doing a little social network expansion today, I’ve been looking at a lot of Twitter and Tumblr profiles. It occurred to me while reading that there ar...
The One Where I Stayed Up All Night
It’s 2am at the time of writing. Little Miss Five has thrown up about six times so far.
Staying Out All Night
At about 11pm last night we realised one of the cats was missing - Tom, who you might describe as having rather too much character for such a small cat. I of...
M4A Annoyances
kidsonswings:
Han Solo Should Have Died On Endor
Who knew that Han Solo should have died in the forests of Endor? Read this interview with Gary Kurtz (co-writer of A New Hope, and Empire Strikes Back).
Is The Well Liked Theme Broken
Just playing around with the themes in Tumblr - it would appear the “well liked” theme by Peter Vidani (the one you’re looking at) is broken - and I’m not en...
Arse
Just dumped the “Well Liked” theme in favour of this one “Simplicity” or something, I think it’s called. Seems to work well, and avoids me having to pore ove...
A Day In The Life
Partly in order to force myself to take a lunch break, and partly to answer a recent question posed here, I’m going to run through a typical “day in my life”.
Mediocrity Rules
I took a look at the visitor stats for this blog last night - hardly inspiring.
A Few Thoughts About Spirituality And Theology
A few days ago I invited the readership of this blog (both of them) to suggest topics, or fire questions at me as a basis for subjects I might cover in the n...
The One Where You Tell Me What To Write About
While struggling to come up with anything informative, candid, or entertaining to share with the loyal readers of this blog earlier (both of them), a rather ...
Ten More Questions
If you could change something about your home, without worry about expense or mess, what would you do?
Monday Monday
Ba daaa, baa da daa daa…
13 13
In the spirit of repeating numbers (I installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my laptop last night - it didn’t dawn on me immediately that the date was 10/10/10), I weighe...
A Day Out At The Museums
At 7am yesterday morning I turfed our eldest out of bed, threw her in the shower, and set about packing our backpacks for her first trip into London - to vis...
This Woman Is Going To Be A Legend On The Internet
Last week a woman was involved in a robbery in Kansas City, which was covered by KMBC. She’s perhaps the most delightfully eccentric person I have ever seen ...
A Journey Of Discovery On The Wordpress Frontier
A few days ago, I decided it was time to reach out across the vast WordPress landscape. Using their own blog directory, I dug half the way to China and back ...
Oh The Fame The Fame
While searching for something online earlier, I quite unwittingly stumbled upon a quote on the 37Signals product blog. Forgetting for a moment that they didn...
10 More Random Questions
In keeping with the recent theme of answering random questions, I thought perhaps it might be time for another ten - enjoywe found ourselves with the dance f...
The One Where I Bought The Wrong Inner Tube
I walked to work this morning. Three miles through the picturesque back streets of my home town. Why? Because my bike has a flat tyre, and is at the office. ...
Sync Podcasts With Mp3 Player
Apart from meddling with a development drupal installation, tonight I finally got around to tweaking the shell script I wrote to update podcasts on my MP3 pl...
Scott Pilgrim Versus The World
I started reading “Scott Pilgrim” this evening - not sure what to make of it so far - I’m not really a comic book kind of person. More into the artwork - Ada...
Lost A Follower
I just noticed I lost a follower. While this wouldn’t be important, if you only had 65 followers to begin with, it’s the same as losing a chunk of chocolate ...
Privileged To Be A Part Of It All
I have been half-watching a documentary on the television this evening about changes that occurred in the chemical industry over the past hundred years. The ...
Olympic Swimmers And Porn Stars
While wandering around the shops today, enjoying a day off work to spend some time with my parents (who live several hundred miles away), I noticed something...
Day Off
Off work today! Taken the day off to go shopping with my parents who have been staying for the weekend (they live several hundred miles away). The house seem...
Photos Of The Recent Past
I get repeated requests from far flung friends to post more photographs - snapshots of family life in the UK. As the Blackberry goes everywhere with me, and ...
Change Of Theme
I just bought a new theme for my tumblog - “Well Liked” by Peter Vidani.
Saturday Morning Spendthrifts
In part to afford our eldest the opportunity to spend her birthday money, and in part to give W a few hours rest from the children, I marched our little gang...
Ten More Things You Didnt Know You Wanted To Know About Me
Continuing on with the recent theme of answering random questions, here’s another ten things you never realised you wanted (or didn’t want) to know about me,...
How Dyou Like Them Conkers
My work office nestles in the corner of a quiet country estate, alongside the River Thames. The river is lined with horse chestnut trees. I have children. Do...
Amazon Wish List
Seeing as I can’t think of anything to share with the world in general today (earache has something to do with that), perhaps a rather random post might fit ...
31 Days To Build A Better Blog
I’m taking it upon myself to follow the instructions advocated by Darren Rowse in his book “31 Days to Build a Better Blog”. At this point in time I’m not en...
Wordpress Mobile Awesomeness
Who knew that WordPress blogs automagically convert themselves for mobile devices?
Friends And Followers Everywhere
When I started taking a more pro-active part in the Tumblr community a few months ago, I had no idea what I was going to use it for, or there it might lead. ...
Eating Party Food
We’re sat here on the couch eating the leftover party food from our eldest daughter’s 10th birthday party. She had friends back from school today for dinner ...
Amazon Wish List
Some of the things on my Amazon Wish List
Working Working Working
Today’s topic of choice is “Event Receivers” in Microsoft SharePoint. Just tripped over “BeforeProperties” (I realise this will all make no sense whatsoever ...
The One Where I Think About Leaving Wordpresscom
I’ve been in an email exchange with the support staff at WordPress all evening about changing my username. I want my username at wordpress.com to match my bl...
Me Myself And I
In pursuit of the theme that has been absent within the blog for many months, and was pointed out by a long time reader recently -an absence of me! - I riske...
Idiocy Reigns At Wordpresscom
For some time I have been disgruntled that my username within the hallowed halls of the wordpress servers has been “jb73”. This might not matter to some, but...
Tumblr Needs A Spam Reporting Mechanism
I just had rather an entertaining “question” delivered to my Tumblr account; inviting me to visit a particular URL. It even proclaimed to be making my life e...
Seduced By The Evil White Box
It’s 9:30pm. I’ve pushed two websites out the door this evening - freelance projects that I’ve been kicking around for the last week or so. The tiredness hit...
Not Sleeping For Experts
I made the mistake of deciding to figure out “Civilisation” on the Nintendo DS last night (I’ve had the game for ages, but never played it).
Stepping Back From The Mayhem
It’s Sunday afternoon, and I have been attempting to avoid anything work related for the day. It occurred to me late last night while tinkering with a freela...
Social Networking Sunday
It’s time to reach out once more across the blogosphere / tumblrsphere / twittersphere, and take note of others.
Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor
For the last several weeks I’ve been planning on getting a role playing game for the DS. Having sold the Playstation 2 and XBox, and not being able to warran...
Banned Books Week
While reading about Banned Books Week, I’ve just been looking a the list of books that have either been banned, or challenged in the American Libraries Assoc...
Yo Yo Hell
I just caught myself looking at a Yoyo on Amazon, and nearly buying it. What on earth was I doing. Suddenly the thought of taking up this kids toy as a stres...
Lunchtime Project Migration From Joomla To Wordpress
I have been helping somebody move their blog from Joomla to WordPress over the last couple of days. The final “big” thing to do was move their old posts and ...
10 Random Questions
While reading the blog of a good friend late last night, it occurred to me that I’ve written very little about myself for rather a long time. Rather than dre...
Promises Promises
After working on freelance stuff into the early hours for the last three nights in a row, I vowed not to this evening. It’s rapidly heading towards 1:30am, a...
Long Evening
It’s been a long evening;
Big Changes
Today I did something rather drastic, rather brave, and a little bit silly. I killed the blog I have been writing for the past four years. The content lives ...
The Four Cornered Triangle Of The Social Networking Apocalypse
In the last year I have been something of an online vagrant - wandering the streets of the various blogging platforms, trying to find a place to like - a pla...
Facebook Wordpress Tumblr Twitter
In the last year I have been something of an online vagrant - wandering the streets of the various blogging platforms, trying to find a place to like - a pla...
Cessation
I’ve been sat here this evening, considering closing the doors to my wordpress blog for the time being. I’ve been struggling to find anything to write about ...
An Awfully Big Adventure
Our eldest daughter is away this week on her first residential trip with school - four days away from home, with her entire year group and many teachers.
Two Chickens Down Again
Our spectacularly bad record keeping chickens continued earlier tonight.
The Breakfast Club 25 Years
Just watching “The Breakfast Club” (turns out it’s 25 years since it’s original release), and I started thinking about the age of the cast - given that Judd ...
Hiding In Plain View
Why do so many people hide behind pseudonyms online? Why are they so scared of being themselves?
Hiding In Full View
Why do so many people hide behind pseudonyms online? Why are they so scared of being themselves?
Fixed The Woo Themes Generate Disqus Comments Layout Bug
Not sure if anybody else has seen this, but if you use the Woo Themes “Generate” theme, the Disqus comments don’t work properly in Google Chrome - it wraps t...
Cats Meet World
This morning the kittens were let out into the garden for the first time - and met the chickens for the first time. I wonder how many times they will attempt...
Sunday Grinds To A Halt
It’s nearing the end of Sunday and I’m still waiting for #newtwitter to arrive. I wouldn’t so much call this “impatience”, as a burning curiosity to play wit...
Toy Story 3
We took the children to see Toy Story 3 this afternoon. It’s probably worth mentioning up-front that the first two movies have been watched to death in our h...
Stuck At 55 Followers
Maybe it has something to do with not posting anything recently - which has something to do with life and work taking over. Maybe.
When Is Mummy Coming Home
At 5:50am, I woke with a start. W was sat upright in bed, shooing the cat away, and cursing volubly.
The One Where I Told The Marketing Moron To Stuff It
While quietly getting on with my work this morning, my desk vibrated gently in that way that usually signals the arrival of something or other on the mobile ...
Mornings Arent Supposed To Happen Like This
At 5:45am the younger children woke up, and decided it was a fine time to get up and switch their bedroom light on - this despite the fact that we recently i...
Clothes Clothes Clothes
Speaking as somebody that refreshes his wardrobe perhaps once every three years (much to the chagrin of my better half), I’ve been scouting out new websites ...
Podcasts To Go
While commuting into and out of London throughout much of 2007 and 2008, I became a regular listener of several podcasts. The bug has stayed with me, and I o...
He Shall Have Music Wherever He Goes
After much digging around, listening, sorting, and choosing, I have settled on the first few albums to make their way onto the MP3 player that travels with m...
Podcasts To Go
While commuting into and out of London throughout much of 2007 and 2008, I became a regular listening of several podcasts. The bug has stayed with me, and I ...
First Batch Of Music
After much digging around, listening, sorting, and choosing, I have settled on the first few albums to make their way onto the MP3 player that travels with m...
Culling Facebook Friends
This lunchtime I culled my “friends” on Facebook pretty spectacularly - I realised I was losing touch with people I care about (in the real world, or online)...
A Day To Forget
After staying at home yesterday with a virus, I ventured back into the office this morning. Upon watching the beads of sweat running from my hair, one of my ...
Perfect Podcast Downloads With Linux
I ordered a Sandisk “Sansa Clip+” MP3 player today, to use instead of my phone to catch up on the various podcasts I try and catch.
Hello Blog Its Been A While
Hello blog - it’s been a while.
All Good Things Come To An End Vox Is Closing Down
All good things come to an end. Six Apart is closing down theVox website - Leo and Amber atNet@Night are speculating thatPosterous andTumblr were the harbing...
Why Cant Wordpress Leave It Alone
I’ve been using WordPress.com for something like 5 years now. During that time I’ve often tried other blogging solutions out, and always returned. It’s getti...
What Should A Blogger Do
It’s 10am on Sunday morning, and it feels like I’ve been up for hours already (in reality, I HAVE been up for hours). I have weighty contemplations on my min...
Stationary
I wonder if there is an official term for somebody who can’t walk past a stationary shop without at least having a look ?
Things I Carry Rebooting And Recycling
I seem to be going through a process of off-loading the various gadgets I have been carrying around to others recently. I thought it might be interesting to ...
Following And Followers
Over the past several months I have been experimenting, playing, exploring, and basically screwing around with all manner of social networking and blogging s...
The One Where I Return Home
For the last month I have been either holed up in hotels, on client sites, or travelling across the country on a variety of trains. At some point during the ...
Back In The Office
Arrived home from client site at 12:30am last night (or should that be “this morning”?), after a 5 hour trip across the country.
Another Morning On The Train
Back on the early train out of town, racing towards another client site. At least I’m not staying over this time
Photo Journey From Marlow To Preston
While spending the last hour or so of my weekend at home with my family this afternoon, I promised the children I would take photographs during my journey no...
Dipping A Toe Into The Tumblrsphere
Last night I ventured forth into the sweaty masses of the tumblrsphere, and began following a number of the lifestreamers. Until now, my connection to Tumblr...
Turnaround Time
The weekends seem like some kind of “turnaround”, or “pitstop” at the moment. Rather than go into some huge and boring story covering the last few days, I th...
Important Skills For Web Development
An online friend recently asked me if I could run through the important skills for students to learn if they want to pursue web design or development as a ca...
I Come In Peace
Greetings to those who have stumbled upon me following my mass followage of many this evening. I’ve been quietly existing withing the massed ranks of the tum...
Another Morning In Preston
Sat in Cafe Nero in Preston city center once more, just around the corner from the office I will be working today. Watching the world go by, sipping at a cap...
The One Where We Stood In The Car Park At 230Am
I woke to the wailing of an electrical alarm - a throbbing, screaming noise that caused confusion at first. I threw back the bed covers, and looked at the ti...
On Getting Up In The Middle Of The Night
I woke to the wailing of an electrical alarm - a throbbing, screaming noise that caused confusion at first. I threw back the bed covers, and looked at the ti...
Morning In Preston
8:30am - sitting in Cafe Nero in the middle of Preston - a few minutes walk from my eventual destination (which of course I cannot name for all sorts of prof...
A Good Day At The Coal Face
Today has been a remarkably good day. It began at 7am, jumping into a worryingly flexible shower, before donning work clothes and calling for a taxi to take ...
Podcast Playlist For A 4 Hour Journey
To help survive the hour into London, the hour across London, and the two hours heading north, I’m filling my phone with podcasts
Its The Little Things
After setting out late this afternoon from the railway station in town, and having traversed Maidenhead, Paddington, and Euston, and Preston stations, I fina...
Heading North Again
It seems like a long time since I last wrote anything here. Time for a catchup perhaps?
150 Posts Continuity
It just occurred to me that this is going to be my 150th post on Tumblr, so I thought a few words might be appropriate.
The Free Speech Corollary
I find it interesting that when a movie such as “The God Who Wasn’t There” (http://bit.ly/cmPMVC) draws attention from the masses, those opposing it are the ...
Can You Solve The Puzzle
Here’s the situation
Lunchtime At The Bootcamp
It’s lunchtime of day two at the Combined Knowledge SharePoint 2010 Bootcamp, and it’s been great so far. It’s rare to be afforded the opportunity to learn a...
Considering The Payload
I watched “Up in the Air” recently (the George Clooney movie), and loved it. For those who haven’t seen it, it describes the life of a businessman who has li...
Midnight Not A Sound From The Pavement
Okay - enough Elaine bloody Paige. We always seem to be on the road on a Sunday when she blights Radio 2 with her mummsy garbage.
The One Where I Review The Hotel Room
Some might consider this post a surrender to boredom, and I would agree with them completely. Enjoy.
Sunday Evening On The Road
It’s late on Sunday evening, and I find myself sat at a pretty nice desk, in a nice hotel room, in a hotel I’ve visited before, a couple of hundred miles fro...
Reasons To Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide
it can cause excessive sweating and vomiting
First Full Day With The Kittens
Their confidence is increasing, they are investigating every nook and cranny of the house, and they are startled by every noise.
Meow
First couple of photos of the kittens…
Following On Twitter
<img height=”73C/3 width=”73C/3 alt=”hotdogsladies” src=”http://a3.twimg.com
Favourite Tumblogs
While talking to one of my favourite writers online earlier - she ofNot Well Versed-I was talking about being sucked back into Tumblr recently, and thought i...
Ending The Ebook Reader Experiment
We put the Sony eBook reader up for sale this week on eBay. It brings to an end a year long experiment; or at least a year of trying it out. During that year...
Consuming Tumblr
I’ve come to realise that I’m more a consumer of Tumblr than a contributor. Sure, I post “stuff” every so often, but invariably I most enjoy looking at what ...
The One Where I Restored Our Tv Reception
We don’t have a normal TV aerial - or at least, not for the big TV in the living room - chiefly because it has the worst reception in the known universe.The ...
The Contents Of Pockets
While figuring out how much money I had to buy lunch with today (hopefully more than I managed to find yesterday - none), I delved into all the various pocke...
The Evening Has Escaped Me
It’s nearly 11pm. I’ve been constructing a virtual machine all evening (in Sun/Oracle VirtualBox), with Alpha Five and MySQL on it for an upcoming freelance ...
Yes But What Do You Do
I realised this lunchtime while churning through Tumblr accounts in search of interesting people that I haven’t actually let out of the bag what it is that I...
Selling Everything We Dont Use
Time for the biggest clearout we have ever had - the following will be hitting EBay over the next few days
Back To Work
Back in the office this morning, churning through emails, finding out what I’m supposed to be working on (general dogsbody by the look of it), drinking lots ...
Back In The Saddle
I woke up this morning to the sounds of the breakfast radio show, and peeped out from beneath the bedclothes at the clock on the bedside cabinet.
Sunday Afternoon
Watching the remains of Sunday vanish, and wondering what to do with myself. Choices at the moment seem to fall between;
Growing Like Weeds
It occurred to me this morning that I’ve not posted any photographs of the children recently, and given their continual transformation from meek, scared, and...
Saturday Morning
It’s Saturday morning, and the rain is falling.Hopes of cooking on the barbecue later have vanished.
Bringing The Cross Posting Experiment To An End
And so it is done. I just put a figurative machete through the posterous account I have been fooling with for the last several weeks. It was an experiment of...
Home From Our Travels
We arrived home at 3pm, unpacked the car, and fell into the house. I immediately turned around, and walked back out of the houseto the corner shop to buy mil...
Slow Day
Sat in our temporary place of residence, relaxing at the end of the first rainy day of the holiday. Kids are watching movies, inlaws watching television, and...
Up In The Air And Adventureland
Finally saw two movies that have been on the “to watch list” for ages - Up In The Air, and Adventureland. Wonderful movies - will write more about them soon....
The Tour Of The British Isles Commences
Tomorrow morning we depart Beckett Towers, and escape to higher ground and higher latitudes for a week of hill walking fun with W’s parents and the children....
Returning To London
Actually - that’s not quite true. I also had to find out if there was any credit left on my Oyster card (London Underground credit card), download the latest...
Pre Roll Ads
Every time I see a video clip online that results in a pre-roll ad, I get no further than 2 or 3 seconds in before moving on.
Musing On Tumblr Tuesday
It would appear that convention dictates the turning of the cogs behind the Tumblr Directory on a Tuesday necessitates the pimping of Tumblites that carry yo...
Embracing The Tumblr Crowd
I’m embarking on something of a “following” expedition through the sweaty masses of the Tumblrati.
Distracted
There are too many toys, and not enough time. With Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Posterous competing for my down time, this personal blog has been sadly neg...
Resurrecting The Life Stream
After a few months experimentation with life streaming earlier in the year, I feel that perhaps I curtailed it a little early. In recent weeks I have been wa...
Starting Something
While monkeying with stuff online earlier, it occurred to me that I haven’t been sharing things quite as well as I might, as thoughtfully as I might, or as c...
Three Kittens
“What would you think about 3 kittens?”Following an exchange of questions and answers via mobile phone, and a rather mystified call, it transpired that we ar...
Getting Up Too Early
I got up at 6am. Breakfast won’t even be delivered to my room until 7:30.
Preparing For Departure
I’m preparing to snap my laptop shut, wander home mid-afternoon, fold up some clothes, and head off to the south west with work for a couple of days. I will ...
First Evening In Salisbury
The hotel I’m staying in is small, but everything works. Anybody who remembers my weekly incarceration at the Hilton late last year will recall the hilarious...
The One Where The Car Broke Down
An hour later, a nice man in a reflective orange tunic peered at the engine and fiddled with things. He then fetched his latop, plugged it into the car, and ...
And Low The Mighty Axe Of Azeroth Did Fall Upon Those I Followed Ontwitter
Somewhere, in the deep, dark corners of the internet, sombody is probably quite upset that I unfollowed them this morning. I brought to bear the great axe of...
Helmet Cam Bike Ride To Work
This will be interestingI tried out the tiny camera I bought last week this morningstrapped it to the top of my bike helmet, and recorded the journey.
Daddy Stupid Int He
After hearing little people stomping across the upstairs landing the other evening (long after they should have been asleep), I quietly walked upstairs and o...
Differences Of Opinion
What do you do, when you’re reading a blog post that expresses a strong opinion, and you find yourself at odds with it? Do you respond?It’s been ticking away...
Multiple Reboots And Idiotic Phone Crapware
I’m sat here at work, watching a new product install, and reboot the machine repeatedly (thankfully I have another computer to useotherwise I would go quite,...
Social Networking And Freedom Of Speech
What a difference a week makes.
Why Be In One Place When You Can Be Everywhere
I’ve had an ideaan experiment of sorts. While playing around with stuff on the internet late last night, it occurred to me that rather than dictate where peo...
Tiredness Abounds On A Quiet Sunday
We went to the birthday party of a colleague last night - just the two of us. Most people would view this as a normal kind of thing to do on a Saturday night...
Returning To Graze On Healthy Junk
People who mistakenly find themselves reading my blog on a regular basis will remember me talking about the need to have some “me” time now and againand the ...
The Restorative Powers Of A Six Year Old
“Where are the kids?”“Outside somewhere”I then realised that if you cocked your head to one side and listened, you could hear the childrens version of world ...
Old Artwork Prepares To Travel The Globe
After an email back and forth, it turns out the drawing isn’t really what BlogHer are after for their auction, but it got me thinking… I wonder if somebody w...
Playing With Foursquare
I’ll probably go to hell for this (or whichever purgatory your faith system threatens the gullible with). In a fit of curiosity, I joined FourSquare late las...
Unexpected Compliments At The Swimming Pool
While Little Miss 6 was in a dance show earlier today, we took the other children swimming for the afternoon. It’s perhaps the second time we have gone as a ...
An Unusual Day
I had the day off work on Tuesday, to attend our eldest daughter’s school sports day. For the first time in months - if not years - I had the chance to wande...
The Blog Has Handlebars
In a fit of “why not” idiocy this evening, I have changed the header image at Cheese and Beans to a photo taken of my bike handlebars. Notice the motion blur...
Sunday Approaches
I’ve been up since about 8, have an ever so slight hangover, and am busy watching Sunday vanish in front of my own eyes - in much the same way as the traffic...
Paying It Forward Blogs I Read First Five Of Many
In the spirit of “paying it forward”, I have listed below five of the blogs I regularly read. They are not listed in any particular order, and if you’re sudd...
School Summer Fte
We just got back from the junior school summer fte - part of our annual jam packed itinerary of school fund raisers, parents evenings, sports days, PTA event...
Keep Turning The Pedals
Snapped this morning while zooming through the estate on the way to work. Probably not the safest thing in the world to do - cycle along at 25mph, one hand i...
Images Of London
A far flung friend, and long time reader of my blog requested a few photos of London - while I didn’t get much chance over the past few days, here are a sele...
On The Road Again
The alarm clock on my mobile phone beeped into life at 5:30am. I had been awake since just after 5 - watching the minutes tick down, drifting into and out of...
Fathers Day
Each year the infant school hosts a “camping on the school field” father’s day event. I did it last year single handed with the kids - this time W came along...
Fathers Day With The Brownies
Partly as a result of my other half being “Brown Owl”, and party so our kids didn’t miss out, I took part in the annual Brownies father’s day event this even...
Working From Home
There must be something about being six years old. Illness doesn’t just cause a temperature - it causes hallucinations, nightmares, and a pretty good line in...
A Letter To Myself At 20
Excellent idea from Pammer at Outside Voice - to write a letter to yourself at 20…
Running Errands
The house is remarkably quiet this morning - two of the children have gone out for the day, leaving me with Little Miss 6 - essentially as her chaperone to a...
Friday Funk Books And Blogging
Time to obsess over blogging and social networking has been several restricted lately due to the unwelcome intrusion of… you know… the real world.
Bringing The Life Streaming Experiment To A Close
Last night I closed the book on the life stream experiment in tumblr. I have kept the tumblr account, but sanitised it, renamed it, and filed it away for a r...
Energy Finally Runs Out
I’m off work - for the first time in months. What I thought was the after-effects of too much red wine yesterday morning didn’t get any better throughout the...
Disconnected
Do you ever get the feeling that the world has carried on quite well without you, thankyou very much, and that you’re involvement in it isn’t really needed a...
Standing In The Kitchen
Sunday morning. Kids are fed and watered, chickens are fed and watered, I’m dressed, I’ve brushed my teeth, the kids are playing our museum piece electric pi...
Family Wedding
We just got back from spending the afternoon and evening at Knebworth manor attending a family wedding. It was a privilage, and a pleasure to be invited to s...
Temptation Destroys Peace Of Mind
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave my work mobile alone. It sat quietly charging in the corner of the study until late this afternoon when I happened to busy...
Camping In The Forest Part Two Memories And Thoughts
We have spent the past several days holed up in a tent, deep in the Forest of Dean to give the children a holiday, and to give ourselves a break from the usu...
Camping In The Forest Of Dean Part One The Photos
For the past few days we have been camping with our children in the Forest of Dean. Following a marathon slog, today we pulled the tent down, packed everythi...
Four Chickens
When the children awoke early this morning and saw me walk past on the upstairs landing, they didn’t greet me with “Dad!”. They shouted “we got new chickens!...
Mind The Gap
I arrived back in England at about 7pm this evening, and began the railway adventure towards home. Seeing “Mind the Gap” painted on the ground reminded me th...
Approaching Journeys End
I’m sat in the lounge area of the Pom d’Or hotel in Jersey, just across from the marina. I have a couple of hours to kill before a final meeting, after which...
The Jersey Adventure Begins
The day began at 5am when I woke, and quite surprisingly found myself wide awake. The alarm had been set for 5:30am. I watchedthe minutes tick by for a few m...
Must Fly
I’m packing clothes and a laptop this evening to travel with work to Jersey - one of the islands between England and France - with work. My mission will be t...
Sunday In The Garden
It’s baking hot outside, so we’re holed up on the house, doing homework, playing games, and otherwise hiding. I wandered outside briefly with the camera and ...
Rekindling My Love Affair With The Internet
For the past few days I have been perched atop a precarious knife edge - on the one hand deleting, cancelling, and purging huge swathes of my involvement in ...
A Few Minutes Calm
It’s Saturday morning, and I’m enjoying a few minutes of calm before the rest of the weekend chews me up and spits me out. After today, I’m not expecting to ...
The Great Social Network Massacre
If you’re anything like me (and I strongly suspect you are not), you have all manner of accounts, spread all over the internet. I’ve been doing something abo...
Considering A Reboot Of Online Friendships
CiX, Compuserve, innumerable bulletin board systems, Yahoo 360, Blogger, DiaryLand, LiveJournal, Vox, WordPress, Identica, Facebook, Cliqset, Plurk, Twitter…...
Being Stupid
Little Miss 6 has decided she likes pasta and sauce. This is a breakthrough. She finally seems to be leaving behind the year of “I don’t like that”. Of cours...
What Stops Trees From Falling Over
At the end of dinner last night, while we were all sat at the table, I leaned behind myself an retrieved a box of quiz questions that we acquired at Christma...
The May Fayre
Yesterday found us camped on the school field, running a stall for the May Fayre. Our stall (invented by my better half) consisted of throwing balls onto a t...
How Does This Free Time Thing Work Again
The work week has finally ground to a halt. The project that sucked the life out of me for the last month ground to a begrudging halt. I will admit to being ...
A Difficult Day
Yesterday was one of the most difficult days I have experienced professionally. I obviously can’t explain much further than that for all kinds of reasons. At...
Posting Into The Future From A Hotel Room Weird I Know
In these days of immediate feedback, it feels a little odd to write a blog post for a future publishing date. The reason is my own stupidity; I am sat in a h...
The One Where I Didnt Run In The Marlow 5
Our local 5 mile running race took place this morning, starting from Higginson Park, doing a tour of the town, and returning whence it came. For the first ti...
Facebook Just Jumped The Shark
I cannot quite believe what just happened (well, I can believe it, but still…) - Facebook just turned a corner in my opinion. If you thought Apple were bad f...
Link Gets His Turn In The Header
I just took the entirely autocratic decision to install “Link” from the “Legend of Zelda” into the header of Cheese and Beans for the next month or so. Perha...
I Am Invisible
We went to the garden center earlier to buy food for the chicken - my attendance was required because my other half is not strong enough to lift the sack of ...
Three Weeks Of Mayhem Comes To An End
The finish line is within site. For the past three weeks I have been working all day, returning home, and working most evenings - sometimes into the early ho...
Election Idiocy Overtakes The United Kingdom
I visited the local polling station on the way to work this morning, and was struck by the absence of people while en-route. Either some kind of mass alien a...
A Dragon Called Jug
The journey home from work today was probably unremarkable. I say “probably” because I have quite obviously arrived home, and appear to be in one piece. I do...
Selling The White Macbook
I put the white Macbook up for sale on EBay this morning. We need the money more than we need yet another computer in the house. The auction is going off her...
Half Chocolate Spread And Half Chocolate Spread
The bedroom door cracked open at 7am with a little voice asking “go downstairs?”. I heard a muffled “yes”, and the door closed once more.
Little Miss 6 Takes Her Rainbows Promise
I took the kids down to visit the first “Rainbows” group in our area this morning. Little Miss 6 has been going since it started, and today the first girls t...
Creative Failure Abounds
While approving and replying to comments on recent posts earlier, I noticed the links that WordPress sometimes throws into the footer of blog posts pointing ...
A Few Words Today
The phrase “a few words today” reminds me of Immortal Beloved - the movie about the life of Beethoven, and his letters to a secret love who he eventually lef...
When Will The Hysteria Surrounding The Apple Ipad Subside
Forgive me for being a cynical old curmudgeon, but I’m getting pretty sick and tired of people going on about the Apple iPad. Yes, it’s nice - a wonderful pi...
A Self Imposed Night Off
Today I lifted the world onto my shoulders (figuratively speaking), arranged it into a configuration of my choosing, and set it down again.
The One Where I Got Told Off By Another Parent
I forgot to report this one - I got told off on the way to school this morning by another parent. Shouted at. W didn’t hear because she was busy dealing with...
An Accidental Night Off
Throughout the recent overtime madness I have been subjecting myself to, I have been working on a laptop with a “virtual machine” running on an external hard...
The Twenty Ten Theme Is Here
I wasn’t expecting this until the release of WordPress 3. Today the mighty powers atop mount WordPress released the “Twenty Ten” theme unto the sweaty masses...
Big Blue One
Our youngest received money from “Grandad at the Seaside” for her birthday - yesterday was her first chance to spend it. Little did we know that we would be ...
An Evening Off
Finally taking a night off from development work. Listening to podcasts, scribbling in my notebook. Life is good.
Simplification Of Life Required
I read an update on Facebook from a long time friend this morning that she was “turning inward”, and it got me thinking - about blogging, online presence, my...
School Reunion Madness
While taking a few minutes out at lunchtime today, I checked Facebook and discovered a message about the laughable attempts to organise a school reunion of m...
The Weekend In Photographs
I just found time at work to stop for something to eat, and to splurge something into here.
Three Weeks Of Unlimited Overtime
There will be very little in the way of deep insightful posts from me over the next three weeks (not that there ever is anyway). I have been given approval f...
More Moleskine Madness
I lose count of the hours I spend scribbling while listening to things. My notepads at work invariably end up looking like the genius plans of a lunatic whil...
And So The Great Lifestreaming Experiment Begins
I’m not exactly sure that “lifestreaming” is a real word, but in the grand tradition of embracing new words into the living language we called “English”, I w...
Leaving A Legacy For Future Generations
I just happened to wander into the lounge while W was watching an episode of the BBC genealogy series “Who Do You Think You Are?” - the featured celebrity wa...
5 Years Old New Bicycle
A certain little girl wandered into our bedroom this morning, rubbing her eyes.
Plasticine Girl From Hell
Shortly before leaving work this evening my other half called my mobile. I noticed it vibrating, and picked it up just in time to hear the following…
Open Source And Free Software
In something of a marked departure from the previous post about making hideous little girls out of plasticine, I thought perhaps we might explore something I...
The Value Of Doing Nothing
“Doing nothing” is a misnomer, isn’t it. There’s no such thing as “doing nothing”. Our hearts keep beating, our lungs keep inflating, and our nails keep grow...
And Thats Why We Dont Ask Dad What He Did Today
When I get in from work on an evening, the first few minutes are usually filled with a mad scramble around the house to clear the decks ready for dinner - to...
A Message To All The Ipad Early Adopters
Perhaps this post should be more accurately titled - “a message to all the iPad early adopters who are now complaining”. My message - It serves you f*cking r...
A Child Of The Star Wars Generation
I was born in 1973, which made me four years old when Star Wars arrived at the cinema in 1977. It was quite possibly the first movie I went to see, and predi...
Drawing A Line Through Past Writing
While attempting to catch up on the increasingly worrisome mountain of unread blogs that cast a dark shadow over much of my online presence, I read something...
Door To Door Electricity Supply Salesmen
We just had a guy turn up at the door selling electricity. Only he wasn’t of course. He was conducting a door-to-door survey on behalf of Scottish Power to m...
A Rare Breed Of Blogger
The more I write and share my own experiences, thoughts, opinions and ideas on the internet, and consume those of others, the more I realise I am something o...
A Few More
A final few photos from our Easter trip to Cornwall. We are home now. Just gone midnight - now the first minutes of Tuesday morning - and I am due back in wo...
Cornwall
We’re at the coast over Easter staying with my parents. In some ways this break feels like a refuge - a break from the mayhem of our normal life - of our hou...
Easter Approaches
What is Easter to you ? To me it’s a time to eat enough chocolate to render a large Rhinoceros very poorly indeed. To others it’s a time to go and sit in a c...
Being Sociable
Over the past few months I have been “hitting” twitter pretty hard - exploring what value might be had through growing the number of people I follow, and who...
Taking Responsibility
I got up at 5am (6am after moving the clocks forward an hour) this morning to watch the Formula One race in Melbourne, Australia. I’m not going to bore you w...
An Attempt To Post More Photos
While reading other people’s blogs I always find myself making mental notes to take more photos - and to share more of them. This is an attempt to do just th...
Parents Evening
Yesterday evening saw us make the journey to school for parents evening while good friends babysat the children.
Decluttering The Nuclear Option
I wage a continual war in our study at home - with paperwork, junk mail, flyers, magazines, letters, envelopes, food wrappers, boxes, cartons, bags, wires, b...
Surrounded By Self Absorbed Ignorance
While cycling to work this morning I stood at a junction for nearly five minutes astride my mountain bike, waiting for a break in the traffic. The entire roa...
Retro Organisers Rule
Filofax personal organisers appeal to the productivity maniac part of my brain somehow. Considering that I lived for 2 years with an iPhone in my pocket, now...
The Weekend In Photos
Saturday was filled with a visit to relatives we should really visit far more often in Oxfordshire.
New Broom Sweeps Clean With The Macbook
Who remembers the couple of years I spent working in central London ? Who remembers the blog posts written on the train, performing character assassination o...
Some Numbers
For those with an anally retentive statistics streak, here are some numbers fresh out of Google Analytics, charting the return of “Cheese and Beans” on 25th ...
A Crash And A Whoosh
This morning the machinery of our house spat us out of bed at the prescribed moment, pitching us into the morning routine. I woke several times as the radio ...
Take The Keyboard Away From Me
It would appear that if a computer keyboard is within reach of my insane fingers, I will meddle with the theme of this blog. Given a little reflection, it se...
The Wisdom Of Children
In between various work requests and support calls from customers, I sat at work this morning watching the clock - watching for 11am to arrive; knowing it wo...
Its Official I Hate The Mustard Theme
I don’t quite know why I chose the mustard theme. It seemed like a good idea at the time. On reflection, it was pretty crap, wasn’t it. Awful in fact. I susp...
Lady Gaga Heres To The Crazy Ones
This week the video for “Telephone” by Lady Gaga was released. There are not enough adjectives. It’s inventive, loud, original, and perhaps most importantly,...
A New Coat Of Paint
It’s all change again for my personal blog - gone with the minimalist theme, and in with the loud, in your face theme. I would like to say this was all plann...
A Difficult Weekend Ahead
Over the past few weeks we have been keeping a brave face on a rather sad story at home. Simpson, our many adventured cat, has run out of lives. What we thou...
Please Excuse Me While I Kick Something
For some unknown reason (and remember this is a professional software developer and web designer talking) the web server this installation of wordpress is sa...
A Family On Two Wheels
Taken while en-route to school this morning… what a change - over the course of three weeks we have gone from all walking, to all riding bikes. The youngest ...
The Journey Home
1st Mile
Changing Scenery
A higher power than myself has dictated that I must move locations in the office once more - and I find myself sat back at the desk I had early last year. I’...
Ever So Slightly Annoyed
While skimming the various news outlets around the internet before turning in for the night, I happened upon a news story relating the frustration of home sc...
A Birthday Card Fit For A Software Developer
After delivering copious amounts of chocolate biscuits to the kitchen at work, I arrived at my desk to discover this…
Hunting For Nasties
The “big” computer at home - the desktop one with printers and various other doo dads attached - is busy checking for monsters in it’s own closet. It’s been ...
The Many And Varied Facets Of My Idiocy
Since deciding to continue with a personal blog a month or so ago, I have been wondering just how stupid I am. Of course there are many different ways somebo...
Too Many Walls
Just discovered this acoustic version of “Too Many Walls” on YouTube, and had to share it;
Sunday Morning Music And Illness
It’s now 10:30, Sunday morning. I’ve been up for about an hour - I arrived downstairs to find the children had made their own breakfast without complaint. Th...
Countdown
I just caught our youngest stood on a foot stool alongside the toilet, doing a very loud and enthusiastic Thunderbirds style count-down towards flushing it.
Through Different Eyes
I was talking to a wonderful friend on the other side of the world earlier, and the question of perception came up - how we see the world, and perhaps how th...
The Soundtrack Of A Day Spent Working From Home
After a steady decline through yesterday afternoon and evening, I woke this morning with rather more aches and pains than I normally have - the kind that nor...
Little Green Men
When I was young I watched all manner of movies, television shows, and read all manner of books about space, the universe, and the idea that we might not be ...
Short Form Blogging With Tumblr
For the past several days I have been exploring and participating in Tumblr - you might call it a blogging platform, a social network, or a social media site...
Long Lost Artwork
While rooting around for something in our bookshelves yesterday I found an old sketchbook tucked down the back of a row of books - a sketchbook I had presume...
Have Notebook Will Scribble
My once mighty notebook - a “Moleskine” no less - seems to have been reduced to a container of drivel. A real-world twitter account. Notes in passing. There ...
Two Minutes To Myself
With the children on half term, and the house seemingly running on autopilot at the moment, something quite unexpected happened this morning - I found myself...
And The Shallow Fanboy Hordes Go Forth And Multiply
In a stunningly transparent example of the hilariously shallow nature of the global geek army spread throughout the internet , I would like to report that wh...
The One Where Our 6 Year Old Learns To Ride A Bike In Half An Hour
I promised during the week that we would spend as much of the weekend as possible out on the bikes. During my childhood this would have meant all weekend. As...
Opportunity Falls From The Sky
Over the past few days a couple of emails have fallen into my in-box requesting help with website design and development projects. Their arrival got me think...
Whats Not To Like
We were invited to the local school parents and teachers social this evening, held at our local pub (within walking distance!). Apparently W set about organi...
4 Year Old Brain Work In Progress
Our youngest daughter developed an unexpected speech impediment several weeks ago; she became unable to say her sister’s name without stuttering on the first...
Little Children And The Human Condition
I’m off work with a cold. I can’t quite figure out how it crept up on me - yesterday evening I was fine; this morning I felt like my brain had been put in ba...
Dinner With Friends
This weekend has served to remind me about the value of friendship, and of having a life. It’s easy to let work consume your life - in my case so much that I...
The School Reunion
A few of the people from my year at school are arranging a reunion this year. Quite why it has to be this year, I’m not sure - we’ll all be hitting 37 - sure...
The Failings Of Facebook And Twitter
Over the past few days I’ve been thinking a lot about social networks - perhaps triggered by the reaction to my recent post about community, and children. I ...
The End Of Community
I grew up in small town England in the 1970s. I can still remember moving house when I was five years old, and spending the first nights on bare floorboards....
I Have Not Read Belle Du Jour
Sunday night became Monday morning about an hour ago, and I’m skimming through the television channels. Billie Piper is on one of the channels, and she’s not...
Photographing The Girls
While wandering around the house this morning making breakfast, I happened upon three little girls watching Sunday morning cartoons on the television, and pl...
Being A Teacher For Two Days
For the past two days I have commuted towards the southern reaches of London to teach a group of business people how to use a technology product I happen to ...
Cycling On The Footpath
Shortly before leaving work this evening I called home to check if I should stop off in town. As far as I can tell, calling home is similar to playing russia...
At What Price Can You Be Bought
While listening to a podcast last week, an interesting subject came up. Unfortunately I was running between trains at the time, so all I managed to do was ba...
The Year Of Living Dangerously
Today marks both the end of something, and the beginning of something new.
Considering Doing This Whole Blogging Lark Properly
The next sentence is going to cause a number of people to slap their own foreheads with their hands - perhaps the entire readership - you know, all six of yo...
I Will Not Go Quietly Into The Night
As I have wrestled over the past year with the idea of stopping all this blogging nonsense, I have been turned around each time by an avalanche of comments a...
The One Where The Universe Carried Me Along For The Ride
If you’re wondering what on earth is going on with my WordPress blog, you’re not wondering in vain. I’m experimenting with the “P2? template from Automattic ...
Severing The Many Tentacles Of Cheese And Beans
I’ve been using posterous to throw thoughts into this blog for a while now. It’s a clever system that lets you publish to multiple places off the back of one...
Nothing To See Here
Nothing to see hereWhile talking with my cousin earlier, I realised a blog had not left a computer by my hand for several days. I’m not suggesting that some ...
A Life Online
Anybody who has read my personal blog recently will be aware that I have ditched the iPhone in favour of a Blackberry. The Blackberry is somewhat better at o...
The Best Birthdays Are Those Shared With Friends
The venue for the party was a local kids play facility with all manner of “safe” climbing frames, ball pools, ramps, slides, and crash mats. It all seemed li...
On The Occasion Of Becoming 6 Years Old
This evening my return home from work heralded a banquet your average 6 year might turn inside out for. Hotdogs, chips, dips, potato wedges, and cheese and p...
Avatar Under Attack From All Directions
It would appear that Avatar - one of the best science fiction movies ever made - is under attack from all directions.
Goodbye Iphone 3G Hello Blackberry Curve
I just put the order in for a Blackberry Curve 8900, and a new mobile phone contract with Orange. It’s going to give me the same functionality I actually use...
Life The Universe And Everything
While catching up on the various thoughts of those I follow on Facebook, LiveJournal, WordPress, Posterous and Tumblr early this morning (yes, I am mad), I c...
Snow Is Falling
I’m working from home today. On reflection this morning I probably couldhave walked the 3 miles across the fields to work, but knowing that further heavy sno...
Snowing In The Night
Just took the above photo with our Fuji S1000fd - set to shutter priority, 6 seconds (with the camera jammed against the window to hold it steady). It’s snow...
Iphone Blackberry Or Google Phone
In mid February, my iPhone contract runs out - I am therefore starting to think about what I will do. Anybody who knows me (in the real world) will know I ha...
Advertising Isnt What It Used To Be
While we all know that advertising standards exist for a reason, I can’t help thinking that advertisements were better when the world was morenaive, even if ...
Playing God With The Sims
If you have not played it before, “The Sims” is a stupid computer game where you get to play godcontrolling little people who exist within the game. As again...
The Curious Incident Of The Lack Of New Years Resolutions
While wrestling with the idea of giving up the blog altogether earlier, conversation around me turned to resolutionsor rather “New Year Resolutions”. I thoug...
2009
Spending Another Evening In The Company Of The Navi
We went to the cinema in Plymouth this evening with my Dad to see Avatar. It was his first trip to the cinema in at least ten yearsI was hoping Avatar would ...
Christmas In Cornwall
In the same manner as Tolkein’s Hobbits having “second breakfast”, we are having a second Christmas of sorts at my parents in Cornwall. It’s the first opport...
Christmas Day 2009
Our day started with a certain little person opening our bedroom door in the dark, excitedly telling us Father Christmas had been, and was it time to get up ...
Bringing My Life Back Online
It’s Christmas Eve, and I am finally home for more than a couple of days after several months spent in a hotel with work. I had anticipated being at work tod...
Avatar
This evening myself and several colleagues headed out to watch the new James Cameron movie “Avatar” at the local cinema. Stunning. No other words for it. Abs...
Outside The Christmas Loop
While watching our children talk to their grandparents in Cornwall on Skype this evening, I got the first real sense so far that Christmas is coming. Lunatic...
Snow Stops The World At Home
While I’m holed up in an office building at the other end of the country, the schools at home have closed on the final day before Christmas after the snow fe...
Yet Another Nativity
We finished the Nativity marathon this evening; I accompanied W’s parents to see our five year old singing the songs we have been bludgeoned with for the pas...
Homeward Bound
Waiting in Birmingham Station to travel back towards home - and anight and day of coding. Not very happy that my planned morningChristmas shopping is now goi...
Sunday In The Playpark
Another morning with the children, and another visit to the playparkaccompanied by excited shouts of “Yay!” when I asked if they would like to go. Unfortunat...
Following On Twitter
While tinkering with some Javascript earlier, it occurred to me that it would be easy to rip the various users I follow from Twitter, and display a rogue’s g...
Junk Food Avoidance
I ate burgers for dinner every night last week while staying in the hotel, and then on friday capped the week off with a pizza. Not exactly good for me.
Another Monday Another Hotel
It’s Monday evening, and I’m in the Hilton again (I wonder if Paris Hilton’s boyfriend says that? Does she have boyfriends for longer than a week?)
Deegs Wedding Party
A few snaps taken on my iPhone at Deeg’s wedding party last night. Ws parents babysat for us, allowing us to escape for a few hours. W has far better picture...
Home Again
I’m finally home this evening after four days away with work. After ringing the doorbell, I heard excited shouts from two little girls who had been allowed t...
What Day Is It Today
Do you ever lose track of which day of the week it is? I have this evening. While staying away from home, I have begun counting the days by the number of set...
Another Week Another Hotel Room
I’m starting to get the hang of this - not living in a hotel - I’m starting to get the hang of expecting failure. Don’t get me wrong - this hotel room is nic...
A Case Of The Mondays
After sitting down at my desk to begin work this morning, I couldn’t help thinking about the scene in Office Space;
Saturday In The Playpark
It’s mid afternoon on Saturday and I’m pretty much wiped out. Today was the day of the primary school Christmas Bazaar - and W was roped in to creating and h...
Symphony Of Science
I first heard this a while ago, after a friend with a science teacher Dad pointed me towards it. Follow the video to youtube, and re-post it on your own blog...
Crash Bang Wallop Out Of Nablowrimo
With days left to go, I didn’t post anything yesterday. Crash bang wallop indeed.
Blogging Goodness Subscription By Email And Curry With Colleagues
The more eagle eyed among you will notice the “subscribe by email” thing in the right hand margin - WordPress switched it on today, so I’m trying it out. If ...
Tuesday Night Working Again
It’s Tuesday night. I’m sat in the hotel working again. I just stopped to bash out a quick post in order to keep going with NaBloWriMo.
Another Monday Another Hotel
Monday night, and I’m sat in a hotel once again. This hotel is not as grand as the previous one from the outside, but the rooms are infinitely better.
Another Week Of Hotel Life Beckons
Sunday night is ticking down, my bag is packed, and I’m more or less ready to head out again. Following a late night of coding on Friday when I was seemingly...
Worn Out Shattered
I worked all yesterday evening on something that was bugging me, and I’ve worked all day today (and into the evening) on freelance work. I’m going to be work...
Home
I’m home from my first stint working away from home.
Getting Into The Swing Of It
It’s Wednesday evening - the third night in the hotel - and I’m slowly getting used to it. If the old saying about not missing what you never had is true, I’...
Hilton Wins Me Over With Her Mediocrity
Hotel breakfasts rule. You don’t have to make them, and you don’t have to wash up after yourself either.
Paris Hilton Can Go Stuff Her Family Hotel Chain Up Her
While away with work over the coming weeks, I am staying at a rather big, rather expensive hotel on the outskirts of a big city in the UK.
Brooke Magnanti Joins Heather Armstrong And Catherine Sanderson In Thepantheon Of Outed Bloggers
News broke in the UK this morning that the writer of “Belle De Jour” had finally been outed by the press - it turns out she is/was Brooke Magnanti. I haven’t...
Windy Day
Little Miss 5 accompanied me shopping today to buy clothes and wash bag stuff. We also had to choose a birthday present for her friend’s birthday party (she’...
Getting Organised
The near future is slowly becoming more clear; I will typically be leaving early on Monday mornings for work, and returning on Thursday evenings.
Thoughts About My Impending Life In A Hotel
Starting at some point next week, and for the next six weeks or so, I am going to be “living” in a hotel during the week. Thus far I had only considered the ...
Bidding Farewell To Social Services
We had a final “official” meeting with our social worker this morning, and bade warewell to the amazing woman who has accompanied us along the journey from b...
The Eleventh Hour Of The Eleventh Day Of The Eleventh Month
I was sat in a meeting this morning as eleven o’clock ticked by. I wondered if I was the only one who noticed. I lost track of what everbody was talking abou...
Junk Food Wine And Big Bang Theory
The last few days has heralded something of a resurgence within meI have stories to share for the first time in ages. Perhaps it comes from a recent attack o...
Not Being There
I haven’t said anything about this on my blog yet - but half the reason for me spending so much time with the children recently has been because I knew what ...
Would You Still Read Me If I Wrote Elsewhere
Those who have read my various writing online will know I have had blogs at pretty much all of the more noteable hosts - WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Posterou...
Ive Done It Again Havent I
My blog is back at WordPress - hosted by their good selves rather than me. I haven’t so much gone “full circle”, as started another lap. Hopefully this will ...
Just A Few Words
It’s 11:34pm on Sunday night, and I’m scraping inside the deadline for NaBloWriMo (I have to post every day this month to get away with it). I know I could a...
Saturday With The Children
From the moment I woke this morning until the moment they fell asleep this evening, I have spent the day with the children - it’s the first time I have done ...
The Results Of The Great October Pleb Fishing Expedition
Over the course of the last month, I have been investing a little more effort than normal into both writing hopefully interesting posts for my personal blog ...
Curiosity Gets The Better Of Me Jupiter And Its Moons
You know the photo I took the other night of Jupiter and it’s moons?
Retro Labels Decluttering And Giving Stuff Away
Given that I wrote a rather philosophical post a few days ago about the attachment of labels to people, the irony has not escaped me that I bought a Dymo lab...
Remember Remember The 5Th Of November
For generations (the last 400 years in fact), English families have taught the rhyme to their children “Remember, Remember, the 5th of November”. The rest of...
Geeking Out With Ubuntu Netbook Remix
A couple of evenings ago I slotted a spare hard drive into my ASUS EEE 1000H netbook, and installed the latest build of Ubuntu Netbook Remix. If you have no ...
Things The Movies Have Taught Us
Having a membership at Tumblr sometimes pays off in the strangest ways; this cross my path this morning, and I thought it was too good not to share;
Showing The Children The Stars
While cycling home from work this evening it struck me how clear the sky was; signalling not only the coming of winter, but also of opportunities to get the ...
Attaching Labels
If a child is not the most academically gifted, it cannot be because they are not the best - oh no - it’s because they have ADHD, mild autism, dyspraxia or s...
The Endless Search For Buttons To Push
I sat down to begin writing this evening with memories of a stereotypically draining and stressful Monday morning running through my head. While contemplatin...
The Morning After The Night Before
The kids didn’t fall into bed until about 9:30 last night, and somehow recharged their batteries sufficiently after a night of mayhem to wake up at 6:30am. H...
Running On Empty
When children get ill, their body does the same thing mine does; hikes the temperature up and burns the virus from their system. The kids have something happ...
Falling Back In Love With Blogging
For the past few weeks I have been investing a little more effort into the words and pictures I contribute to the world you and I know as the blogosphere. It...
The Great Google Wave Invite Giveaway
THEY HAVE ALL GONE!
Seduced By A Flawed Time Suck Called Tumblr
I have been playing with Tumblr again (my page lives at jonbeckett.tumblr.com). I know I shouldn’t but I can’t leave it alone. It’s addictive. Imagine Twitte...
Flagging
It’s 8:30pm at the time of writing - I returned from work at 6, and have been on my feet until a few minutes ago - clearing a day’s worth of washing, and cor...
Star Trek
We finally sat down and watched the “new” Star Trek movie this evening - months after it’s theatrical release.
Time To Read
Visitors to our house are invariably astounded at the plethora of books that surround them - and probably make snap judgements about us, or the “kind of pers...
The One Where We Flooded The Street
Before I recount this story, I need to make it clear that - technically - it wasn’t us that flooded the street.
Dreams About Street Fighter Nazi Children I Dont Have
Yesterday morning I woke at 6am to the sound of our resident air raid siren, otherwise known as “Little Miss Five”.
You Have To Hand It To Apple The Magic Mouse Is Spectacularly Sexy
While catching up with various online acquaintances earlier this evening I came across a friend’s post on Twitter about the Apple “Magic Mouse”. How do Apple...
Taking Part In Nablowrimo Again
I will be taking part in NaBloWriMo again this year (also known as “National Blog Writing Month”) - the annual challenge to write a blog post on every day th...
Sunday And The World Slows Down
For the first time in weeks, I am being afforded the opportunity to spend Sunday doing what I want. This is so rare it seems like something of a novelty.
Imagine A World Without The Royal Mail
Isn’t it interesting that the UK postal service is branded as “The Royal Mail” when it’s a commercial service. Isn’t it also interesting that they think they...
Congratulations To Jenson Button Formula One World Champion 2009
Just a short message to pass on my congratulations across the internet to Jenson Button, who won the 2009 Formula One Drivers World Championship today in So ...
A Toy From My Childhood
When I was young my Dad went on a business trip to Germany, and came back with a toy (from the Frankfurt Toy Fair?) called “Big Loader” - this was at least 3...
Foaming Invective
What is it about Fridays? Where does our energy and enthusiasm go?
How Social Is Too Social
I gained access to the Google Wave beta earlier today, and logged in with quite some excitement. If you’ve not heard about Google Wave yet, you have either b...
Just A Few Words Tonight
You find me on arrival home from a walk into town - an eleventh hour dash to procure food for dinner - and a hearing of our eldest daughter reading from a bo...
Retro Gaming Jak And Daxter Style
It’s strange to think that the previous generation of games machines is now thought of as “Retro”, but apparently it is (ask any ten year old).
Cats And Chickens Friends Or Enemies
Somebody asked me this morning - knowing that we have a cat, and we have chickens - if cats and chickens can peacefully co-exist. Finally a question I can of...
Website Traffic A Nice Problem To Have
I received an email from the hosts of Cheese and Beans earlier today, notifying me that on the 12th of the month, I have already over-run the bandwidth limit...
Second Life In The Playpark
I’m considering setting up a comfy armchair, table, and permanent supply of flasks of tea in the nearby playpark. Despite being off work today with a head fu...
Rainy Days And Sundays
If you arrived here expecting a post about The Carpenters, I should probably apologise. It’s Sunday afternoon, the rain is falling outside, and I just sat do...
Graze Delivers Healthy Snacks And The Post Office Delivers On Time
Graze (www.graze.com) and the british postal service combined overnight to deliver snacks to me, so I thought it only right that I should do an “unboxing” po...
Fck It Friday
While making the very important decision about what to have for a first drink of the day, one of my colleagues (who has been attempting to detox a little) pr...
Snacks Through The Mail With Graze
One of my oldest friends online (she has a blog here) messaged me this morning, asking if I had heard of “Graze” - and I had to admit I had not. The photo ab...
The One Where The Rain Made Me Wretch
The cycle home from work this evening was rather eventful, on account of the great deluge that befell most of southern England in time to coincide with my jo...
The One Where My Other Half Gets A Blackberry
W took delivery of her first “smartphone” earlier today - a Blackberry 8520 “Curve”. To say she is happy is something of an understatement; she’s been living...
Swords Sorcery Magic And Madness Gamers The Movie
In a repeat of their earlier generosity with “Clerks”, Amazon again sent me two movies for twice the price yesterday. This time the movie was “Gamers”, which...
Monday Morning Mayhem
I sometimes envy the single guys at work - that can roll out of bed with a finely crafted routine ahead of them to leave the house with seconds to spare beyo...
Shall I Get Naked
If you arrived here via a search for something rather questionable, I’m sorry to disappoint you. This does involve nakedness, and showers, and lots of giggli...
Going To The Zoo You Can Come Too
If you recognised the lyric from the Tom Paxton track, well done. We went to the Cotswold Safari Park with our kids today - the first time myself or my other...
Messages From The Clouds
No, I have not bought a copy of “The Cloud Spotters Guide”, neither have I suddenly started reading the collected writings of Billy Meier (I’ll let you look ...
Book Crossing And The Beginning Of The Exodus
As can be deduced from the photo above without too many Sherlock Holmesian skills, we have a lot of books in our house. While the photo doesn’t actually look...
New Mug Required
Like most workplaces, we each draw from a collective pool of mugs in the kitchen. The various drinkingreceptaclesare emblazoned with an assortment of long de...
The Emperors New Movie Clerks
While listening to a podcast a few days ago, the movie “Clerks” came up, and I realised I had not seen it. A quick search on Amazon revealed it for a reasona...
Clerks 2 And The Great Redemption
I like to finish things. I might not finish them immediately, but there is some weird, screwed up part of my head that likes things to be orderly - in the ri...
A Social Networking Sht Storm Of My Own Making
When you’re busy fiddling with something interesting, it’s easy to become so engrossed in “the next thing” that you forget all about the trail of things you ...
Lunchtime Redesign Of Cheese And Beans
I got a virtualmacheteout this lunchtime, and set about hacking lumps from my personal blog. I have been looking a the “Thesis” default template recently, an...
The School Barbecue
This afternoon we all trooped off to one of the several events throughout the year at the primary school two of our girls attend. Well troop is somewhat of a...
Ducks In A Row
I have been meddling with the various places that I hold accounts on the internet this eveningtrying to bring the same username into effect everywhere (as mu...
Contemplating Another Twitter Cull
Back when twitter was shiny, new and horrendously unstable, it was also interesting; or rather the people who frequented it were. Popularity heralded the arr...
Acronyms
Why are some people preoccupied with acronyms, or catch phrases ? I’m going to theorise that those who include them in their general vocabulary are perhaps e...
Counting The Days
It’s been a mental week.
Preparing For Adventure As King Of The Nerds
I’m not actually sure if the next few days of my professional career can be regarded as adventure or not. Of course, given the usual constraints on that whic...
Losing Track Of Time
This evening I have been implementing a new theme on a WordPress blog for a friendand as anything of this nature would naturally dictate, I completely lost t...
Handy Tip Three And A Half Hours Sleep Is Not Enough
You might imagine I would have worked out how much sleep I need to survive on by now, wouldn’t you. You would also be wrong.
Playing With The Traffic
Once upon a time I read the book “Chaos” by James Gleick. Within the many and varied unfathomable ideas was the concept of a “strange attractor”. It has stru...
Bridge To Terabithia
We sat down last night and watched the movie “Bridge to Terabithia”, rescued from the bargain bin at our local movie rental store. The cover sold it as “from...
Alvin Theadore Simon Cue Machine Gun Fire
I just got back from a trip to the shops accompanied by our youngest, and was subjected to a barrage on 4 year old thoughts about life, the universe and ever...
Surviving The Birthday Party
I arrived home last night a little early to help out with our eldest daughter’s birthday party. It seemed like a simple enough idea for a birthday; 3 friends...
Skimming The Firehose With Netvibes
I’m trying out “Netvibes” - http://www.netvibes.com - as an alternative to Google Reader. If you’ve not seen it, it’s similar to PageFlakes, and iGoogle - al...
Words Never Written
For some time I have been promising a far flung friend that I will re-imagine her blog - make it pretty, shiny, professional, approachable, fun, and welcomin...
Talent Wins Every Time
I showed this to our kids earlier, and they sat goggle eyed throughout. It’s easy to forget just how much they have yet to discover - so many great musicians...
Chronic Tiredness
Should 2am be regarded as “last night”, or “this morning” ? Whatever, it’s the time I finally rolled into bed last night. This would have been find had a sma...
Freelance Web Designer For Hire
I went through the website I use to attract freelance work earlier and gave it a polish. Given the fact that a certain somebody will be learning all about we...
8 Years Together
We went out for dinner last night at Bangkok Lounge in Bourne End to celebrate surviving 8 years of marriage without killing each other. Apart from being the...
Apple Ipod Nano 5G First Impressions
The Nano arrived in the post yesterday, and I finally got a chance to have a play with it late last night.
Nsfw Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Xtz
You have been warnedthis is NOT SAFE FOR WORK. It is laden with expletives, and is completely and utterly unsuitable for minors to watch.
Consolidation
After being incredibly impressed with Posterous over the last few weeks, I have decided to jump ship for my regular blog (that very few people read anyway). ...
Remembering Marilyn
After dinner this evening I was listening to music with our eight year old daughter. She was taking an interest in “my music” for a changeI’m not quite sure ...
Children Need To Learn Where Meat Comes From
There has been a crazy news story on television this morning - about aprimary school that has reared several lambs, and is about to sendthem off to market to...
The New Ipod Nano Music Camera Video Camera Fm Radio Pedometervoice Recorder And More
I just finished watching live coverage of the Apple press conferencein the US, and immediately following it went to the online Apple Storeand ordered a new i...
Scooter Crash
While walking to school this morning, our 5 year old had the kind ofscooter crash that Barry Sheene would have been proud of. It seems tobe pre-programmed in...
Agnetha Faltskog Sometimes When Im Dreaming
I often wondered what Agnetha did after ABBA. Amazing voice - when she gets to the chorus the voice we grew up listening to appears fleetingly… makes the hai...
On The Train
This morning finds me on the London train once more - for the first time since I stopped commuting for a project last year. It felt very strange preparing to...
The One Where The Spider Had Babies
You know the spider I evicted from our house a few days ago? The one I evicted from the kitchen yesterday? It had babies. In something approaching the Oklaho...
The One Where Two Of Our Chickens Got Eaten Again
Given the general level of mayhem that exists in our house, nobody else tends to remember to let the chickens out, or shut them back in their run each night....
They Are Letting Me Write For The Local Newspaper Website
It would appear that I have been approved to write for the local newspaper website. I’m not quite sure at the moment what I will write about - they appear to...
Keeping The Dream Alive Munchener Freiheit
I have no idea why this piece of music appeared in my head earlier this evening. Perhaps the 1980s music festival we went to is to blame. Who knowsAs far as ...
First Day On The Felt Q720 2009 Mountain Bike
As promised, some thoughts about the bike after a first day commuting on it - and a trip to the local bike shop to get essentials (and a few non essentials)....
Felt Q720 Mountain Bike It Will Never Be This Clean Again
Fresh out of the boxthe first photos of the Felt Q720 mountain bike I took delivery of earlier today.
Good Morning From Cornwall
It’s Friday morning, the sun is shining, I’ve had two cups of coffee, and the day ahead looks good. The kids have had their breakfast - I just need to go jum...
The Rewind 80S Festival Henley 2009
The photos from the “proper camera” of our day at the Rewind Festival, Henley on Thames, 2009. Among the acts, The Blockheads, Nik Kershaw, Go West, The Chri...
Saturday With Dad
In continuation of a pattern of late, I took the children off W’s hands this morning for a “Saturday with Dad”. In reality it had been engineered to allow cl...
The One Where The Insurers Buy Me A New Felt Q720 2009 Mountain Bike
My faith in the world in general has been repaid somewhat this afternoon, following news that our home insurers are paying out on the mountain bike I had sto...
Almost Las Vegas
The last 24 hours have been somewhat bizarre (or at least, more bizarre than normal, which is saying something). For those who don’t know, I work in the dayt...
The One Where My Bike Got Stolen
When I arrived home from work yesterday evening, there were several teenagers hanging around under the trees on the green outside our house. I noticed them b...
Playing With Things
The license for Remember the Milk just came up for renewal, so I am taking another look at “Things” for Mac and iPhone - a nice task list application. Things...
Holiday In Pembrokeshire
A few of the photos from our holiday - trying out the media integration built into Posterous - if this works, it will arrive at Flickr, Facebook, my blog, De...
Deciding On A New Bike
I reported my stolen bike to the police this morning, and we’re calling the insurance company this evening to find out how much they will pay out - which mor...
Testing Something Out
If this works, this post will automagically arrive on my blog, Twitter, facebook, Flickr, Livejournal and various other sites simultaneously - meaning I can ...
Confessions
Originally spied on the wonderful blog “inProgress” (http://kassota.wordpress.com), this seemed like a lunchtime sized activity to partake in. Random confess...
Thoughts About Watchmen And Sex In The Movies
I finally got around to watching the “Watchmen” movie last night, after completely missing it at the cinema, and repeatedly picking the graphic novel up in b...
Pondering Reclusion
I’ve been wondering for some time about the relevance of a personal blog on the internet.
Nandos G Force And Hmv
I took two of the kids off W’s hands today for a trip to the cinema. I had planned to take all three, but following little miss 5’s repeated adventures durin...
A Week In Pembrokeshire
We spent last week staying in a house in Pembrokeshire, Wales, with W’s parents and her brother. I spent most of the week battling the remnants of the cold I...
Rejecting Virtual Worlds
I have never played “World of Warcraft”. The lure of escaping into a fantasy world where I could be anything I wanted, and behave any way I wanted always see...
Sickness Sucks
I hadn’t been off work sick since the girls arrived with us 18 months ago. Thanks to a wandering cold virus that chanced upon me and grinned wickedly, I am a...
Charlotte And Jacob Got Married
This weekend most of our collective families assembled from the four corners of the globe to celebrate the marriage of my cousin Charlotte, and her fianc Jac...
Sex Always Sells
While tinkering with some Javascript last night, I extracted the avatar images of everybody I follow from Twitter and posted it online. All good.
A Family Wedding Approaches
At some point tomorrow morning we will pack ourselves and the children into the car and travel to London, where we will be staying over the weekend to witnes...
The People I Follow On Twitter
While tinkering with some javascript earlier, I thought it might be fun to scoop out of twitter the various users I follow, and assemble them all in one post...
Celebrating Nothing
While reading somebody else’s blog last night, I realised that my own personal blog isn’t actually about anything in particular. If you read any of the publi...
Five New Blogs To Follow
While re-acquainting myself over the last few days with the various online communities I used to call home, I stumbled upon some excellent personal blogs tha...
Contents Of The Bag Of Holding
If you have ever wondered what I might be carrying around in the bag slung over my shoulder, wonder no more;
The Music Of The Blogosphere
I began wondering this evening if there was a piece of music that I could tie to writing - to blogging. Was there a piece of music that encapsulated the shar...
Goodbye Lg Cookie Hello Iphone 3G
For the last several weeks I have been using an LG Cookie mobile phone - the one I bought to use for freelance use - in place of the iPhone which had develop...
Has The Twitter Bubble Burst
I was going to title this post “To blog, or to microblog”, but I’m not quite sure if “to blog” is grammatically correct or not (if it is in the dictionary, I...
Returning To The World Of Apple
This evening has been my first real chance to sit with the white Macbook - my Macbook - since it came back from being fixed by the local Applecare service ce...
Time To Blog Or Rather Lack Of It
This blog has been woefully neglected recently, and I can see no immediate opportunity to redress that. Work, life, and the universe in general are conspirin...
Chess And Lunchtime
I played chess on the internet at lunchtime against some anonymous person somewhere else in the world. I would love to tell you who they were, and where they...
Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince
I headed out to watch “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” last night with a good friend.
Teaching Children To Play Chess
One evening last week while our eldest (8 years old) was up late having her hair de-nitted (yep - the week before the summer holidays, all our kids got nits ...
Miley Cyrus Breakout
I bought a Miley Cyrus album for our eldest daughter earlier from iTunes, which she has been listening to throughout the afternoon… while washing up and putt...
Lady Gaga Bizarre And Brilliant
When I first saw her on television, I thought “what on EARTH?!?”, and switched channels. Since then the chorus lines of her songs have invaded my brain via t...
Back On The Air
The photograph is of astronaut Steve Bowen. His expression pretty much sums up my feelings of being back online.
Fullmetal Alchemist
I bought the first series of “Fullmetal Alchemist” at the weekend. I’ve read a couple of the Manga books in the past, and thought it was interesting. For tho...
Painting The Wendy House
A couple of weeks ago, some good friends offered us the W House at the foot of their garden. I nearly bit their hand off.
Why Are You Great
Following an interesting idea invented by Antidamen on her LiveJournal, I’m turning this blog inside out today - and asking why you think you are so great;
Threaded Comments Ahoy
I took a few minutes out this lunchtime to implement threaded comments on this blog. WordPress has been able to do it for ages (since version 2.7) - I just c...
Light At The End Of The Broadband Tunnel
You might not know this, but I have had no broadband internet connection at home since February. With a little luck the situation is about to change (5 month...
Thunking Away
You’re probably wondering what on earth “Thunking” means. As far as I am aware, it comes from computer science - and is often used to describe the process of...
Our Wedding
I just realised that I have never shared the photos of our wedding (in 2001 with the world at large. Consider this the start of that being corrected;
Keeping In Touch
I’ve been having a bit of a sort out this morning (in between making breakfast for everybody, coffee, getting dressed, brushing teeth, dealing with tantrums…...
At The Races
We went to the horse racing at Windsor Royal Race Course today with some friends - first time I have ever been to a horse race, race track, or anything like ...
Thinking About Blogfriday
I have had this domain name sat dormant for quite a while - www.blogfriday.net - and have been wondering what to do with it.
Michael Jackson Rest In Peace
It has just been reported on the news that Michael Jackson died earlier today. Twitter beat the news networks to the news by about a minute.
Grunting At Wimbledon
Finally some sense came to the Wimbledon tennis tournament today, when a quietly spoken Argentinian girl beat Maria Sharapova. While Sharapova grunted, screa...
Wandering Thoughts On An Early Commute
Sitting on the train, en-route to Birmingham once again. Woke with a start at 4:55am, and lurched out of bed. Espresso at home, and a capuccino at Maidenhead...
Camping Single Handed With The Kids
The primary school that our youngest is at stages a “camping” evening each year - usually coinciding with father’s day. It takes place on the school field fo...
View From A Train Window
While commuting towards a client site last week at some ungodly hour, I pointed my iPhone out of the Window and took this…
The World Carried On Regardless
If you’ve been wondering about my whereabouts over the last month - and let’s face it, few if any of the people who happen across this blog will have done - ...
Tumblarity
I thought it might be interesting to share the results of my week long assault on Tumblr, and it’s ranking system - “Tumblarity”…
A Quiet Day At Home
I had planned to stay at home today and bury myself in a couple of freelance projects that have been hitting the skids recently (due to the crazy schedules I...
Flat Out
Tonight is a night off from both my professional and freelance work - the first time out I have taken in a week or so. It’s time.
Tumblr Is A Virtual Scrapbook
I think I’m finally beginning to get my head around Tumblr. Where WordPress is designed for wordsmiths - people with a story to tell - Tumblr is designed for...
Crazy Schedule Invites Tumblr And Twitter To Seduce Me
You read the title correctly. Given the ever increasing demands on my time over the last month or so, the frequency and quality of my blog posts has hit an a...
Hannah Montana The Movie
This afternoon, while playing the part of “Dad”, I took our eldest daughter to see “Hannah Montana - The Movie”.
Nik Kershaw Somebody Loves You
I discovered the album “15 MInutes” way back in 1999 before I visited my cousin in America. I have always regarded it as perhaps the best Nik Kershaw ever ma...
Artwork From My Past
While replying to somebody on Twitter earlier, it occurred to me that I had not posted any of my old artwork on this blog.
500 Followers On Twitter
This evening I passed the 500 follower mark on Twitter. The lucky (?!) 500th person was @soyleslie - an interesting young woman on the other side of the plan...
Travelling With Work
I’ll be leaving the house in the early hours of tomorrow morning to travel with work. I have been working as part of a team to build a project that we are sh...
Football In The Park
In between working on a freelance webdesign contract, taking our middle girl to a “modern dance” rehearsal, trudging around town, and then totally missing th...
Overwhelmed By Stuff And Nonsense Or How To Waste A Saturday
I’ve spent the last hour looking at Tumblr after a far flung friend (laurenmalone.tumblr.com) voiced her admiration of it. I was surprised - she has been hos...
Branding On Twitter
Earlier this evening I changed my username on Twitter from jonbeckett73 to jonbeckett - in a feeble attempt to start sorting out my “online brand” (don’t lau...
Software Development In The Real World Geniuses And Numpties
Although I am officially a “Technical Specialist” on paper for Microsoft technologies, the ability to pass an exam is pretty much useless when faced with rea...
Busy Busy Busy
You may have noticed the severe lack of posts from me recently. A combination of working on a huge project to a deadline in the daytime, freelance work in th...
12Seconds This Could Get Silly
In the depths of last night, long after I should really have gone to bed, I took a look at 12 seconds on the internet…
The One Where I Nearly Hit Our 4 Year Old Over The Head With A Snowshovel
Just one of the exchanges that took place today;
This Used To Be My Playground
There was a time when I would find a quiet hour to sit at the computer and write. The keyboard served as a conduit between mind and computer, translating the...
Day Out With The Kids
Over the four days of the easter break, I have taken an unfeasible number of photos of the kids this year. Here are a few of today’s… (warning - crap load of...
How Many Faces Is Too Many
While running back and forth tugging children along a zip-line at a theme park this afternoon, I started wondering about my work colleagues - about those who...
Im Not Dead Yet
The title is of course a reference to a rather famous scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It also refers to the lack of wordage pouring forth from my...
Frustrating Weekend
I had hoped to make progress with a number of freelance projects this weekend. It didn’t happen (or at least it hasn’t happened yet - I forsee a very late ni...
Wendys Birthday Random Photos
a few of the many photos I took at W’s party, while dividing myself between roles of organiser, host, financier, friend, husband, dad, mental dancer, and tir...
And The World Keeps Turning
The last few days have been unrelenting.
When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth
I discovered “When SysAdmins Ruled the Earth” while looking at the ePub digital document format last year. I was commuting into and out of London each day, a...
A Moleskine Comes To An End
This is the friendly Moleskine notebook that has travelled with me over the last couple of years, being filled with all manner of idiotic ideas, opinions, th...
Tori Amos And The Soundtrack Of My Life
I discovered her one morning in 1991 while watching breakfast television. She was there during the hundreds of hours spent commuting to and from London. She ...
Looking Forward To My Old Macbook
After I’ve booked the old Macbook in for service, it will be mine once more. It is covered by three years Apple Care (which cost a small fortune, but looks l...
Wendys Birthday
In celebrations normally reserved for the Queen, W is having two celebrations this year - the first (today) on her actual birthday, and the second next weeke...
Very Very Tired
Today started at 5:40am, in order to get kids lunches ready, breakfast ready, clear the kitchen, and then get ready for work before leaving at 7am. I didn’t ...
Little Broken Camera
We took the kids to the woods at the weekend, and in the face of continual moon faced complaints about never being allowed to do anything from our eight year...
72 Hours Offline
The wheels fell off our broadband connection at home a couple of days ago in spectacular style, and it’s starting to feel like somebody has cut my air supply...
The One Where Pipex Hold Us To Ransom
For the last two months we have been trying to move our internet service provider at home from Pipex to British Telecom. The main reason for doing so is that...
My Second Moleskine
A new Moleskine notebook arrived through the post a couple of days ago - my original one is slowly filling up, and I realised I would hate to be without one ...
The Wii Fit Has Landed
After several months thinking about it, we finally succumbed and bought a Wii Fit last week - it arrived on Saturday morning. It was bought as a belated birt...
10 Favourite Personal Blogs
In the spirit of sharing, here is a list of ten personal blogs I like. If you’re not on the list, and you know I read your blog, worry not - I’ll do another ...
The One Where I Froze Like An Ice Lolly
In choosing the title of this post, I debated between “Popsicle” and “Ice Lolly” - mainly because I know a lot of Americans ready my blog, and I’m not really...
Musical Brilliance From 1985
A couple of nights ago I needed to make an emergency trip into town to buy groceries - and happened to pick up the earphones for my iPhone as I left the hous...
A Rare Night Out
After much planning and preparation, last night we managed to escape together for a night out in town with W’s brother. It was our second night out together ...
We Have Three Chickens
Nestled in the corner of our garden, in their own arc and run, are three new additions to our menagerie - three chickens.
At The Beginning Of My 36Th Year On This Planet
With the advent of my 36th birthday earlier this week, I have been wondering how much I have changed over the years - how I am different than I was before.
Being A Rubbish Dad
I was pulled up by W last night for becoming more rubbish than normal at this whole business of being a Dad. The worst part is that I already knew.
Join Me For Some Cheese And Beans
I gone done and did it. Again. (and yes, I am quite aware of how many grammar rules the first sentence breaks. I also know this footnote should not have star...
A New Wordpress Theme
It’s not actually a “theme” as such yet - just an HTML and CSS file sat on my hard drive that I came up with over lunch. You can click on the image to see th...
To Brand Or Not To Brand
Over the last eight or nine years I have “existed” in many forms on the internet - a member of Compuserve, a contributor to bulletin boards, a sometime usene...
The Morning Commute A Photo Journey
I couldn’t figure out how to attach the digital camera to myself in order to shoot video on the way to work (I’ll probably have to buy a bracket for the bike...
Experience The Firehose
If you have ever wondered just how much crap I spew out onto the internet, wonder no more.
Drawing
I promised to draw a few people a couple of months ago, and have not got around to it - while taking a half hour break from freelance work yesterday evening ...
Unexpected Gort Style Fury
The other day somebody posted a comment on a photo of one of our kids that nearly caused me to go nuclear on the spot.
An Invitation To Analyse My Handwriting
After reading Antidamen’s blog post, I’m joining in - here’s some of my handwriting - analyse away…
Books To Read
I love reading - I just wish I could find more time to devote to it. For the past several months, most waking hours have been spent buried in work of some ki...
New Theme And New Wordpress Goodness
When I moved my personal blog back to a hosted solution at wordpress.com it was for entirely fiscal reasons - we’re busy cutting back on unwarranted expendit...
And Thats Why He Is Brave
The swirling maelstrom of thoughts cleared a little this evening while waiting for our eldest to brush her teeth. A section of my favourite book appeared in ...
Returning To The Real World
We’ll be getting back in the car in a couple of hours time to travel home from my parents on the south west coast - a five hour car journey taking us through...
Alone At Midnight Once More
Once again I’m sat here in the early minutes of the morning, alone downstairs, bathed in the light of the monitor, fingers tapping away at inconceivably comp...
Working Late
Another night down, another night closer to paying for our new car, and another night of churning out illustrations that will eventually grace a corporate we...
Mediocrity
If you look up mediocrity in the dictionary, you find the following;
Change Is Good Right
I know, I know… I changed the look of this blog again (if you’re reading this through an RSS reader, you’ll need to click on the title to see the wonderous b...
Apparently We Have A New Car
I called home earlier today, knowing that W went looking at replacement cars.
Monday Morning Cranky
My weekend consisted of getting up early, making breakfasts, getting the kids dressed, washing up, tidying up, working like a lunatic on freelance stuff, mak...
First Photos From The Fuji S1000Fd
Here are some of the first photos from the new camera - a Fuji Finepix S1000fd. It’s an amazingly compact little machine, and seems to be very economical on ...
Favourite Photographs
With the impending arrival of a new camera at home, and the inevitable avalanche of new photos as I learn with it, I thought it might be timely to post a few...
New Camera Avalanche Of Pictures
I am retiring our huge, battery hungry Fuji S9500 with it’s little successor - a Fuji Finepix S1000fd. It has all manner of cleverness wrapped up in it appar...
The Bicycle Of Invisibility
Before explaining about the two traffic incidents that occurred today - neither of which are out of the normal at all - it’s worth explaining that when I rid...
February 2009 Photo Journal My Home Town
I have been repeatedly requested by far flung friends for pictures of where we live - and today while walking through the snow and ice into town for emergenc...
Evolving The Design
This evening has been spent evolving the design of a website for a freelance client - trying out new design ideas and directions. Design is difficult, but ul...
Words From Another Life
An email arrived in my inbox this morning from somebody I have not seen for about 8 years - my closest friend for a couple of years back before I got all sen...
Snow
It was forecast, but I guess until you wake up, and it’s coming down like a thick white blanket over the world around you, you don’t always believe it.
Freelance
I’ve been working away on a freelance project throughout most of Sunday. Where most people think web development is all about making websites look a certain ...
Twitter How Much Is Too Much
With the recent surge in popularity of Twitter, I have been wondering how much information is too much when sharing thoughts, discoveries and observations wi...
My Thoughts In A Wordle Word Cloud
The above image was generated by Wordle, after pointing their wonderful gadget at my blog. How cool is that!? I may have to post one of these at the end of e...
Websites For A Rainy Day
Given that I spend an inordinate amount of time online, and have therefore amassed a somewhat embarrassing level of knowledge in terms of “what can be found,...
The 25 Things Meme
I honestly thought I had avoided this one - several of the blogs I read had been caught up in it, but I had not received the dreaded instruction. Until ten m...
The Morning The Smile Slipped
Before going to bed last night, we talked to the children about them getting dressed as soon as they woke in the morning - rather than waiting for us to “hel...
A Year With The Girls
It’s hard to believe a year has passed since we visited the foster carer’s house, and met the girls for the first time. A year of fun, stress, hard work, exa...
Fifteen Thousand Hits
Can you believe this blog has been visited 15,000 times ? What on earth is so interesting about the words I write or the pictures I occasionally post? The wo...
Sunday Morning 9Am
It’s Sunday morning, it’s raining outside, the kids are watching Harry Potter on the television in the playroom, W is sitting quietly sipping Rooibos tea in ...
Listening To Tiny Dancer
It’s Sunday evening - heading towards 10:30pm - and I’m sat listening to “Tiny Dancer” on the “Madman Across the Water” album by Elton John. There is an inte...
The Information Integration Paradox
If I was ever going to have a falling down moment over something trivial, now would be the time.
Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist Mcts Web Developer
After several years working with the Microsoft .
Timbuk2 Design Your Own Bag
While hunting around the Moo Cards website, I happened upon “Timbuk2” - a company that makes bags…
Nothing To Report
While not revising for another Microsoft certification exam tomorrow, I have been wondering what to write a blog about today. The “common sense” part of my b...
Medadfriend Vs Clientcolleaguerockstar Web Designer
I have taken the next logical step towards the seperation of “Jonathan/Dad/Friend” and “Colleague/Client/Rockstar Web Designer”, and acquired a phone number ...
Iphone Lg Cookie Solution Of Sorts
At some point over the next few days - possible this evening - I am going to replace my venerable old Nokia pay-as-you-go phone with a more modern handset. A...
Bloglines Beta Better Than Google Reader
A good friend who just started writing a blog asked me how to subscribe to other blogs that she might want to read - and before giving any kind of definitive...
Your Chance To Get A Drawing By Me
The first seven people to send me an email with a photo of themselves in it will get a drawing of the photo. If nothing else, it will force me to start drawi...
Self Portrait 20Th January 2009
Still posting self portraits as and when I feel like doing so… this one was again taken with the crappy little Fuji J10 point and shoot - using the computer ...
Mobile Phones Galore
With the impending trip my iPhone is going to make back to Apple (it’s borked), I will have to survive with an alternative mobile phone for a couple of weeks.
Big Bang Theory Strikes Again
This is getting bad. We’re on our second episode tonight. I’m not sure how many we have left… and I’m not sure what we will watch when we run out.
Playing Grid On The Nintendo Ds
If there is a reason I am so tired this morning, it’s not just because I was watching back-to-back episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” last night - I was also ...
Freelancing Into The Night
I live a strange existence at the moment. My daytimes are filled with either revision for Microsoft certification exams, or requests to add non-existent cont...
Sunday Night Becomes Monday Morning
We’re sat here trying to make best use of the remainder of our Sunday evening - well, perhaps “evening” is a little wrong. It’s 10:56pm at the time of writin...
Filofax
I visited our local stationers earlier, and somehow found myself buying this year’s week to view diary for my old Filofax. I have no idea why I bought it, be...
Changing Themes Developing Themes And Getting Organised
If you’re wondering why I changed back to “The Journalist” theme on my personal blog, it’s purely because it’s easy to read, and it doesn’t get in your way -...
End Of A Long Day
It’s been a long day. As arranged yesterday evening, I gave Wend a break today and took the kids off her hands as much as possible.
Google Force My Hand Notebook Is Closing
I just read a news item that surprised me - there will be no further development of Google Notebook - and services are being taken away from it right now. Go...
Wordpress Theme Design And Development
I’ve been working away for the last couple of evenings to design and build a new theme for WordPress. It’s name thus far is “Subminimal” - I have no real rea...
Working Late On Web Design
I’ve been working late this evening on a freelance web development project - I can’t show you the actual project yet, but I can give a hint through the graph...
One Exam Down Four To Go
I passed the first of my Microsoft exams this morning. The full title was “Microsoft .
Revision Revision Revision
I’ve been busy revising for a Microsoft exam all weekthe .
2 Minute Poetry Competition
While kicking back, drinking our coffee, and putting the world to rights, myself and a colleague invented a rather fetching poem…
Contemplating A Return To Backpack
It’s the start of a new year, and I’m thinking once more about the challenges that face me, and the methods I might use to manage them. Last year I happened ...
Up Early Tired Aggravated
I have been up since 7:30am today (Sunday) after the kids all woke up and started making a noise like the house falling down from about 6am onwards. I didn’t...
Trip To The Farm
Just to finish ourselves off in spectacular fashion, we took the kids to the farm today. They love it, and get to feed the various animals, experience “real”...
Sunday Ends
It’s the end of Sunday evening, and I’m sat here wondering what to do with myself for the remaining hour or so of the weekend before I crash into bed. I woul...
5Th Birthday Party
Our middle daughter had her 5th birthday party today. She is mad about Diego, so we dressed the living room up as a jungle, and made all manner of animal the...
Motoko Kusanagi
While waiting on the phone the other day, I found myself looking at the drawing of Motoko Kusanagi (character from Ghost in the Shell) that I drew last week ...
Tinkering With Wordpress Templates
As the first step into a much longer journey, I have been teaching myself the nuts and bolts of WordPress theme creation tonight - and in doing so have re-im...
Productivity Tip How To Prune Your Blogroll
If you’re anything like me you have an enormous list of feeds in Google Reader that you don’t keep on top of at all. From time to time you go in with a prove...
A Place To Write
After returning to WordPress a couple of days ago, and writing “Life and Times” after a year long sabbatical writing elsewhere, it feels strangely comforting...
Wallpaper Set Repost For The Asus Eee Pc 1000H
For the benefit of those hosting their blogs at WordPress who may have missed these first time around, here is the complete collection of wallpapers I tailor...
Finding Time To Consume And Participate
While making a coffee in the kitchen this morning, and discussing last night’s MacWorld keynote with a colleague, the subject of how we keep up with the late...
Wrestling With Privacy Concerns
I have wondered increasingly frequently over the last year or two if to write a blog at all any more - or at least if to write a “personal” blog. Thoughts su...
Tired And Cranky
The day started with me being first out of bed (as per usual), before heading downstairs in my robe to wash up two sink fulls of cups, plates, and god knows ...
Is Livejournal About To Die
While reading the tech news this morning, it appears that the team running LiveJournal has made 20 of it’s 28 staff redundant. It looks like the beginning of...
Self Portrait 5Th January
Taken this evening after getting in from work, washing up a mountain of dishes, putting all the kids through the bath, putting them to bed, reading their sto...
Back At Work
This morning I find myself back at my desk, in the office of my employer for the first time in many months - with no immediate prospect of leaving the office...
Finding Five Minutes
I’m hiding in the study for five minutes - and using the time somewhat productively to splurge various throughts through the keyboard into the interwebs.
Somebody Stop The World
It’s Saturday morning, and I’m knackered. I’ve been up since 7:30, and all I did so far was wash up, and clean the kitchen up.
Happy New Year
It’s 2009! Just handed the phone over with my parents - now talking to W. Just wanted to wish everybody who reads a happy new year.
2008
2008 A Year In Pictures
I just skimmed through the many hundreds of photographs we took this year to pull out a few that I don’t mind sharing with the world at large - click on the ...
The Year Of The Netbook
I have been thinking back through the various technology news stories, gadgets, and industry events that have occurred in 2008 - trying to make sense of what...
I Am A Wii Bowling God
I just scored 240-something on Wii Bowling. Such is my delirium that I don’t know the exact score.
To Begin Again
As the new year approaches, an email has arrived inviting me to renew the hosting account for “The Enormous Waste of Webspace” - the site that has housed my ...
Were Still Standing
After spending our first Christmas with children, more toys than most toy shops, a house full of family, and numerous inter-continental webcam calls, we are ...
New Friends And Deep Thoughts
Stepping back into the world of LiveJournal shortly before Christmas has resulted in a number of unexpected new friendships that have renewed my faith somewh...
Jingle Bells Jingle Bells
Our house is now on the final run in towards Christmas - our first with children. It’s hard work, draining, and exciting all at the same time. While slogging...
Farewell London For Now
During my final hour this afternoon in the London office I have commuted to for the last two years, I handed in my security swipe card, my laptop, and shook ...
Memories Of London
While counting down the last couple of days working in London, I remembered to take a camera with me today to record some of the sights that have become so f...
What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks
What light through yonder window breaks ?
Counting The Days
At lunchtime today, two things happened that made me realise once again that I will be more than glad to get out of the city - to no longer have to ignore th...
Not Happy
In order to at least “be there” for our eldest’s swimming lesson, and the adopters end of year party, I am doped up to the eyeballs on headache tablets, soar...
Holy Flying Shoes Batman
Quite apart from being the most entertaining news story in ages, the shoe throwing attack on US President George Bush Jr is generating some of the funniest r...
Time To Leave Flickr
Yahoo have ended the employment of George Oates - the guy who designed the Flickr interface, and along with Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, made Flick...
Artwork And Censorship
While surfing around the various communities on LiveJournal earlier today, I kept tripping over various art or photographic post labelled “NSFW” - “Not Safe ...
Aniston Be Thy Name
I know, I know… this post lowers the bar from the usual posts about programming, life, stress, gadgets and so on - but just look at her.
Fuji Finepix J10
The postman finally delivered our new camera earlier today - a tiny Fuji Finepix J10 - it replaces the small Sony W55 that I lost somewhere in Oxfordshire a ...
Powered By Chocolate
I have finally arrived at work this afternoon after attending our youngest child’s nativity play this morning, getting in trouble with HR for not updating my...
The End Of An Era
I confirmed this morning with my boss in London that I will definitely be finishing next Friday.
The London Odyssey Comes To An End
Two years ago I visited a client of my employer in central London for five days to hand over the codebase of a huge project myself and two colleagues had wor...
Revisiting Livejournal
Many moons ago I was a member of LiveJournal (and blogger, and wordpress, and twitter, and identi.ca, and MySpace, and Vox). Invariably the reason for joinin...
Participating In The Twitter Universe
Since Twitter first appeared on the internet, I have been a somewhat reluctant participant. I’ve somehow amassed over 200 followers, who probably don’t take ...
Fuji Finepix J10
I just put an order in with Amazon for a replacement for the camera I lost a while ago. After looking around for something small, inexpensive, and with decen...
Escaping For The Night
Following military style preparation and planning, we escaped our “family of five” status for a few hours last night, and went out to dinner with some friend...
And So It Starts
We retrieved our Christmas decorations from the attic tonight - with predictably violent hyperventilation, gasps, and vomit inducing excitement from the chil...
Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock
Quite apart from the quite brilliant extension to “Rock Paper Scissors”, I love the comment from Sheldon - “I am not going to watch the Clone Wars TV series ...
Blogcatalog A Community For Bloggers
After looking around for a blogging community for some time, I came across BlogCatalog a while ago - and have been impressed with it.
Amazon Mp3 Store Opens In The Uk
The Amazon MP3 store has finally opened in the UK with a raft of albums selling for 3 (about $5). I’m not quite sure how they are getting away with it, but t...
Sat On The Train
I’m heading home from work early today in order for my other half to become “Brown Owl” once again.
Big Bang Theory
While flicking through the TV channels late one night a few months ago, myself and W happened upon a sitcom filled with geeks, and found ourselves sucked in....
Whole World In His Pants
While little miss 4 years old was wandering around the house the other day, W overheard her singing
Procrastinating
After working for something in the region of 12 hours yesterday, and then commuting into London today on the usual 5am / 7pm schedule, I think I’ve earned th...
Early And Grumpy
It’s 7:35am on Sunday morning, and I am dressed and downstairs with the younger children. As per usual they were up before 7, and despite numerous instructio...
Us Reaches New Low Walmart Staff Killed In Sales Stampede
If ever there was proof that American society has taken capitalism too far, and should maybe take a long, hard look at itself, then the death of the guy work...
Busy Weekend Ahead
After a marathon week working on some of the most complex code I have written in years, the weekend has arrived, and there is going to be no let-up.
The Community Of Bloggers Opens
After receiving no feedback whatsoever, I took the slightly risky move last night of registering the domain name anyway because it was available - and once I...
The Community Of Bloggers
A couple of years ago I built a forum - mainly because people asked me to - for people who write blogs to create their own community. It never had it’s own d...
The Beatles And Itunes
The news broke today that the deal to put The Beatles catalogue of music onto iTunes has fallen through - after TWO YEARS of negotiations.
Old People In Corner Shops
I worked from home today - for two reasons; firstly the network at the office has been playing up again, and secondly I had a bad cold all weekend so didn’t ...
Old Friends In Dreams
I had a spectacular dream last night - the kind of dream where you wake up wondering just how powerful your brain is.
Returning To Myspace
It’s been tipping down with rain here today - and I’ve been sidelined with a rather nasty cold. Inbetween washing up, tidying up, and child wrangling, I’ve b...
Azor The King Of Shaves Razor
Some of the regular readers here will remember me talking about “King of Shaves” shaving gel a couple of years ago, and the impact it had on me. While walkin...
Writing A Chess Engine
Every few years, I find myself returning to a project I have had kicking around since leaving college - writing a “chess engine”. For those who are casual re...
Cloning Objects In C
I debated about writing this in a different place on the internet, but seeing as this blog has become a drop box for anything and everything that enters my h...
Pondering Exams
I am thinking about doing some Microsoft certification exams to attempt to stay current while commuting to and from my current employment in London. The idea...
One Messenger To Rule Them All
While waiting for the idiotically crap source code repository called PVCS to dribble files into my computer this afternoon, I caught up with one of my friend...
Getting Nowhere Fast
I was in the office this morning for a couple of hours. Today’s task was to extend the functionality of a pre-existing chunk of code - make it do something n...
Sleepy Morning Descends Into Farce
Yesterday (Sunday), the kids decided that 5am was a great time to be up and running around their bedroom, across the landing, and making as much noise as the...
Freelance Web Work Rocks
I’ve spent the afternoon drawing digital artwork for use as background for powerpoint slides. It’s good to have such diverse skills and experience.
Life Update
It’s been a while since I last wrote a proper blog post about “my life”, so perhaps a coffee break while sitting in London this morning is the perfect opport...
New Enterprise Has Star Trek Nerd Army Mobilized
I haven’t laughed so hard in ages. Here’s the new Star Trek “Enterprise” (from the forthcoming movie);
Cascading Failures
As a part of our final run-in towards getting the adoption done and finished, we have to prepare various documents for the courts - in triplicate.
Working From Home
An eventful day so far (and night).
Windows 7 Not A Re Write At All
And I quote from InfoWorld, who have been picking apart the beta of Windows 7…
More Wallpapers For The Asus Eee Pc 1000H 1024X600
Following my post of a few wallpapers specifically designed for the ASUS EEE PC 1000H a few weeks ago (click here to see them), here are a few more. Last tim...
Even More New Hardware
Late last night I purchased more new hardware to assist in talking to freelance clients. A couple of my colleagues will start laughing when they find out wha...
Wardrobe Replacement
I just put a huge order in on the internet for clothes. Part of the wardrobe replacement that I tend to do every year or so.
Pulling Out Of Nanowrimo
I’m pulling out of NaNoWriMo. I had no time yesterday to write anything, no time today to write anything, will have no time tomorrow to write anything, and n...
Chapter 7 Networking And A History Lesson
Networking the computers turned out to be both easier and more difficult than I had imagined. Windows for Workgroups 3.11 made it easier than I had perhaps t...
Chapter 6 The Newspaper Shop And Halleys Comet
One morning while wandering through the streets of Witney on my way to the office, something in my head told me to stop off at the newsagent in Corn Street.
Chapter 5 Inventing Damon
Sam neatened the paperwork in his hands by dropping it through his fingers onto the desk.
Chapter 4 The Salesmen Arrive
A little after ten oclock, while feeding the third stack of floppy disks into my tremendously exciting new computer, I heard Captain Hook’s laugh drift up th...
Chapter 3 Introductions
My arrival at my new employer could be described best as accidentally falling from a moving car, and landing completely unscathed, on your feet.
Chapter 2 First Day
The digital wail of an alarm clock rips into the remnants of the quite wonderful dream I was having about Jet from Gladiators, and I crack an eye open. A sil...
Chapter 1
I am going to post the various scribblings that contribute to my NaNoWriMo attempt into my blog. An hour this morning has seen the first 2000 words committed...
Nanowrimo Starts
It’s officially the 1st November. Over the next month, if all goes well, I will write my first novel.
Slight Disaster
Guess who was monkeying with his personal webspace at lunchtime and managed to wipe his blog from existence ?
Snotty Laptops And Strange Dreams
I’m writing from the train once again. It’s 7:37am at the time of writing. I was up just before 6 - a luxury afforded by half term, and the children not requ...
The Ignorati
I mentioned the term “Ignorati” in a post a few days ago - an inspired term to describe the nutters I typically have to put up with while commuting into and ...
New York Times In Trouble
Even though new media mouthpieces have been shouting for some time about the end of print newspapers, it still comes as quite a shock when perhaps the bigges...
Days From Nanowrimo
We are days away from the start of NaNoWriMo, and I have not given any thought at all to the story I am going to write. Am I worried? Yes and No.
The Haircut Experience
Yesterday morning, on the way to work I dropped into one of the local barbers to get my hair cut. Little did I know that I would get to meet perhaps the most...
Googles Latest Thing
Has it occurred to anybody else that Google seem to be really interested in whatever they are currently working on, and then lose interest as soon as somethi...
Free Memory Giveaway
I have upgraded my home laptop to 2Gb of memory - meaning I have a 1Gb stick kicking around.
An Implementation Of Gtd Or Getting Things Done
For the last several months I have been trying out various tools and techniques to help manage the various requirements placed upon me in the various roles m...
Taking The Eee Pc On The Train
Today marks the first day the new EEE PC has journeyed with me into London, and therefore resumption of the “Morning Post” that I sent so regularly last year...
Designing Wordpress Themes
Several things occurred to me recently;
Wallpapers For The Asus Eee Pc 1000H 1024X600
In the interest of making myself some half decent wallpapers for the EEE PC, I invaded the vaults of Interface Lift, and cropped some suitable images down to...
First Observations Of The Asus Eee Pc 1000H
Okay - 24 hours into owning an ASUS EEE PC 1000H, and I have a few observations worth recording.
Listening To Buzz Out Loud
It’s been a while since I talked about the stuff I’m listening to while commuting back and forth from London. Regular readers will know that mainstays includ...
Asus Eee Pc 1000H Unboxing
The ASUS EEE PC 1000H arrived today from Amazon (via Pixmania), so this evening I set about unboxing it and installing all the software I will typically be u...
The Beginning Of The End For Print Media
I read with interest this evening a post at ValleyWag about Forbes magazine, who have been running two operations for the last several years - both in Fifth ...
Steve Ballmer Exposed As Evil Microsoft Robot
In a stunning development early this morning, Steve Ballmer of the Microsoft Corporation has been exposed as an evil robot - the first of a robot army being ...
Software To Write A Novel With
With NaNoWriMo approaching, I have been wondering what to use to write my book. After a cursory search around the internet - looking at products such as yWri...
Reclaiming Sleep
I slept for 4 hours last night - dropping into bed at about 1am, and getting up when the alarm went off at 5. Somehow I am able to just “get up” - and always...
Trashy News Travels Fast
While reading various news stories this morning, it struck me how a story will break in one place, and spread quickly through related news sources over the f...
Essential Utilities For An Asus 1000H Eee Pc Running Windows Xp Sp3
A shiny new ASUS 1000H EEE PC will arrive at our house at some point over the next few days, and I have been thinking about the list of software to install o...
4 Hours Sleep
I’m looking forward to probably 4 hours sleep tonight.
Sharing My Wordpress Theme
It struck me while looking at the latest version of the “Journalist” theme for WordPress that I actually like my theme (the one I hand crafted, and that you’...
Nanowrimo Meets Nakniswemo
No, I have not invented a new language.
Nanowrimo Approaches
It’s that time of year again. I’ve put my name down and expect to spectacularly fail once more in my bid to write a 50,000 word novel during November.
Just Ordered Asus Eee 1000H
I just ordered an ASUS EEE 1000H - a “netbook”. For those interested in what it is / what it can do, here’s the low-down;
Its Been A Long Time
A few weeks ago a face popped up on Facebook’s “people you might know” panel. Somebody I had not seen for at least 20 years, and that my main memory of is pr...
Thoughtcafe Rides Again
It’s back. Granted, it’s not complete (a long way from it actually), but ThoughtCafe exists on the interwebs once more…
Essential Wordpress Extensions
While talking to one of my colleagues at lunchtime, it occurred to me that I rely on a number of WordPress plugins to extend the basic functionality of WordP...
The Weekend That Wasnt
I’ve just had one of those weekends that didn’t really happen - and now find myself back at work on Monday morning, tired, and preparing to juggle complexity...
Order From Chaos In Pursuit Of A Task List
I have a lot of stuff going on in my life at the moment. In an effort to somehow organise and structure the various requirements placed upon me from day to d...
Getting Things Done
For the past several months I have been trying out various tools to help me fight the disorganisation that follows when you have a day job, a freelance gig, ...
Asteroid On Collision Course With Earth
Just read over at Slashdot…
On Any Sunday
I’m not really sure why I titled this post “On Any Sunday” - especially given it’s provenance as the title of a famous movie starry Steve McQueen about Motoc...
The Return Of Thoughtcafe
It’s coming back, and returning to it’s roots.
The Cathedral And The Bazaar
Next on my commuting reading list while taking a break from fiction is “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”.
More Thoughts On Starting Something
You may recall a month or so ago I mentioned about “starting something” once more on the internet, and wondered if anybody else was interested in helping.
Hilarity On The Underground Again
While stood on the underground train this morning travelling east beneath London, we arrived at one of the stations and a young guy with a beard and headphon...
Compact Disc Failure Rates
Our eldest daughter asked if she could have some music on the other evening - and following a quick finger through the first few CDs in our rack, I pulled do...
Apple Threaten To Close Itunes
Yep. You read it right. Apple are threatening to close iTunes.
Everybody Is Ignorant On The Underground
Just had a typical journey on the London Underground. Thought I would share.
The Secret Features Of Windows 7
While skimming Ars Technica earlier this evening, I read with interest their piece about Microsoft going public with Windows 7 (read: successor to Vista) at ...
The Reality Of 3 Children
While recognising that it’s becoming increasingly rare for me to write about family, our children, or life in general, I thought it might be timely to make a...
Aaaarrgghhh
If you haven’t read my earlier post about the most simple tasks becoming more complicated, perhaps the last few minutes might be a good example.
Didnt Make It To Work
Today was one of those days that started badly, and got spectacularly worse - and it’s still only 11:20am.
Wii Finally Succumb To Nintendo
At some point tomorrow a nice man sent from Amazon will deliver a large box to our doorstep at home containing a Nintendo Wii, and several games for it. The ...
Simplification
As regular visitors will notice, I have gone back to the drastically simple look/feel that I put together a month or so ago for this blog.
Julia Allison
Until I picked up the August 2008 edition of Wired Magazine while commuting home from London, I had no idea who Julia Allison was. It would appear that withi...
Doing Something Nice
Following me breaking my backside for the last few weeks doing a day job and freelance work, a few of the projects have started to pay off - with money arriv...
Thinking Out Loud
I have been playing with Tumblr on the internet for the last few days, and it’s been liberating.
Building Something Insanely Great
I have been doing a little freelance work recently, and have been wondering about ploughing some of the money earned back into a new website. The obvious que...
Wordpress Tumblr Posterous And Twitter
Being the inquisitive sort of chap that I am, I often find myself trying out new things on the internet, and wondering how I might make use of them. While th...
Outrage On The Underground
I nearly spoke out on the Underground beneath London today.
Reflections On Three Weeks With An Iphone
I thought it might be of use for others searching and reading on the interwebs to record my thoughts after living with an iPhone for three weeks - enough tim...
Iphone Survives 21 Upgrade
Among the various scare stories abounding on the internet, I upgraded both iTunes and my iPhone this evening.
Crumpler Boomer
My new bag arrived through the post from Amazon earlier today - a Crumpler Boomer (apparently it’s a “medium” - they appear to make these bags in every dimen...
Finding Yet Another Bag
You may remember I was rather enthusiastic about the “Danger Rocks” bag I bought, and that has been accompanying me to and from London on the train of late. ...
Final Fantasy 4 On The Nintendo Ds
I picked up a copy of Final Fantasy 4 for the Nintendo DS at the weekend - it will be my travelling companion on the train over the next few weeks, and likel...
Asus Eee Pc Rocks With An External Monitor
It never occurred to me to try this before. The EEE PC has a VGA connector on the side of it. I have a spare flat screen. Lightbulb moment (with “ding” sound...
Thoughts On Vista
While having a break and a cup of coffee, I thought it might be interesting to relate the experience of a Windows Vista machine arriving at home - what I did...
Shiny New Ipod Fat Wide Nano
I’m guessing everybody has now seen the photos leaked onto the internet of the new iPod Nano that Apple will be announcing this afternoon.
Farenheit 451
Amazon’s website is suggesting that I should buy “Farenheit 451”. They know me too well.
Mamma Mia
I took our eldest to see Mamma Mia at the cinema this afternoon. Loaded down with drinks, popcorn and chocolate, we got great seats and enjoyed every minute ...
The Size Of The Photo Storage Problem
In preparation for our new computer arriving on Monday, I have been doing a chore that we’ve been avoiding for years - rationalising and sorting out our digi...
Evolution Of Delivery Services
You may recall that I bought a new computer for home the other day - who would have thought even ten years ago that the following information would be availa...
Posterous Finds Its Place As A Moblog
I have finally found a place for the wonderful “Posterous” service that I wrote about several days ago.
Sarah Palin On The Cover Of Vogue
Who would have dreamed that the words “Sarah Palin” would do better than “Britney Spears” to garner hits on the internet? Obviously Britney thinks so, becaus...
Looking Back A Meme I Just Invented
It’s time for a coffee break from the endless streams of source code I am spewing out at the moment, so I decided to invent a meme. It has no real title yet ...
New Computer
I just ordered a replacement for our venerable desktop computer at home. I could bore you with specifications, but I am not going to. Suffice to say it’s man...
Early Opinions Of Google Chrome
I have been playing with Google Chrome throughout most of today (while not fighting fires with C#, SQL Server and K2), and thought it might be worth recordin...
Back To School
Our eldest and youngest returned respectively to school and playgroup this morning after six long weeks off. The morning schedule resumed with a bump at 6:30...
Variations Of A Theme Of Posterous
I’m sat here wondering if I might be able to find a use for Posterous. Normally I write here at “The Enormous Waste of Webspace”, but Posterous is persuasive...
Generation X
While out for a walk at lunchtime in London, I picked up a copy of “Generation X” to read at last - the final well known book by Douglas Coupland that I have...
One Of Those Days
Today was one of those days when it doesn’t just feel like all you’ve done is tell the children off all day - you know it’s all you’ve done all day.
Working Environment
I’m spending more time than ever in our study - both doing freelance work of an evening, and often working from home in the daytime. Carving a half sensible ...
Being The Dependable One
The problem with being the predictable, dependable person that everybody knows, that everybody expects to remain the same, and that everybody expects a smile...
Remember The Milk
In a battle to somehow simplify and also organise my chaotic life somewhat, I have been trying out a task list thingy on the internet called “Remember the Mi...
Broken Glasses
This morning our youngest snapped the eldest’s glasses in two. This caused an inevitable derailing of the entire day that had been planned for the children.
Kick Starting The Words
If you write regularly, it is inevitable that you will run out of inspiration from time to time. A few movies have stayed with me over the years that leave m...
Junk In My Trunk
And low, I did massacre the theme of my personal blog, and pump it so full of sparkle that little girls swooned over it and wished they could help - with sti...
Waiting
I’m currently waiting for a virtual server to finish processing something intensely complicated. While doing so I cannot fiddle with any other code, so am re...
In Fits And Starts
Does the phrase “in fits and starts” exist outside of great britain? It describes the manner in which things happen sometimes at a trickle, and sometimes in ...
Absence Explained
If you have been wondering about my absence from the internet at large, wonder no longer. Last week we were on holiday at my parents in Cornwall, and this we...
Nightmares
All three of our children have been sick for the last few days - with various levels of fever, blocked noses, and sore throats - the product of a visit to a ...
Iphone Ticks The Boxes
I went out yesterday afternoon and bought an iPhone at last. I walked into the store, told them that I knew all about it, and all about the tarrifs, and plea...
Out With Highrise In With Sugarcrm
After a month playing with Highrise from 37Signals, I started to find failings, and set about evaluating the next option in my list - SugarCRM - the open sou...
Blackberry Or Iphone
My mobile phone contract comes up for renewal in a couple of months time - and I’m already looking at the various options open to me. The following devices a...
Plurk Yet Another Social Media Microblogging Application
I’m sure those of you who spend far too many hours on the internet will have looked at Plurk already. For those of you who have not, here’s what it looks lik...
Fantastic Idea Choose Your Own Adventure Story Website
While sitting down eating dinner at a chinese restaurant a couple of years ago with friends, everybody was trying to talk me into making a web based version ...
Burning The Candle
Have you ever heard the expression “burning the candle at both ends” ? It accurately describes my life at the moment.
Kung Fu Panda
I took the elder two kids to see “Kung Fu Panda” this morning at the cinema. For our 4 year old, it was her first ever visit. Never has such a big grin been ...
Anticipated Reactions
Do you ever disregard a notion to tell somebody they look great because you fear it will be misinterpreted by the unwashed masses as some kind of “pass” ?
Rude Old Hags On Trains
The annoying old bag did it again. She got on the train at Cookham, sat opposite me, and kicked my feet deliberately. I moved, and she said something about n...
Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince
Could this be a still from the forthcoming “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” movie ?
Currently Readingon The Road By Jack Kerouac
After hearing so much about “On The Road” over the years, I thought it was about time I read it - and while wandering around London at lunchtime I stumbled a...
Commuting Etiquette
While squashed onto an underground train beneath London this morning it struck me how many unwritten rules I abide by while travelling on trains and buses; t...
This Is How Webdesign Happens
For those not involved in web design, I thought it might be interesting for you to see how a site “comes about” - the first steps, if you will.
The Enduring Appeal Of Britney Spears
If you arrived at this blog post expecting to see a fan-boy posting about the enigma that is “Britney”, you’re going to be disappointed. This post is a cynic...
Headless Robots
You’re wondering why this post is titled “Headless Robots”. Wonder no more - head on over to “We The Robots” and identify with the message.
Moo Mini Card Unboxing
Continuing with the line of thought that I should farm out anything that I can to external services - allowing me to concentrate on only that which is import...
Lunchtime Observations
I think perhaps my invisibility field was in full effect today - walking into Liverpool Street to get some lunch just about everybody and their dog walking i...
Organising My Life With Backpack
For the next month or two, alongside Highrise and Basecamp, I am trying out Backpack for the full “37Signals” effect on my life.
The Urge To Tinker
I have been tinkering with the “Beckett Web Design” website here and there over the weekend (check out what happens when you click on the screenshots now), a...
Evaluating Highrise From 37Signals
In the middle of ordering funky business cards from Moo, and visiting my first client this evening, I have been looking around at “Client Relationship Manage...
Touting For Freelance Web Work
I’ve recently had several people asking me to help them build websites. Given that it’s kind of “what I do”, and that my employer only pricks their ears up i...
Enormous Waste Of Webspace Now Using Wordpress 26
Before leaving the house for my twice weekly trudge into London, I installed WordPress 2.6 on The Enormous Waste of Webspace. It’s a major upgrade, and has a...
Is This A Blogging Exodus
I have been sitting up here, on my fence, watching the blogosphere for the past few months, and I can’t help feeling that a change is happening. I can’t figu...
Iphone Misinformation
Somebody pointed me towards an article online about the iPhone, and I was so stunned at the poor research involved that I couldn’t let it pass without counte...
Iphone App Store The First Nail
Apple have finally unleashed the iPhone App Store on the world, and it’s looking very much like the first nail in the coffin of every other smart phone maker...
How Many Screens Is Too Many
It’s worth pointing out that in reality the only machines I am using are the Dell and Toshiba laptops for work. Everything else is there for the photo call b...
Country Music Lyrics
While working on some development work at home (a very boring .net web service), I have internet radio on in the background, filling the room with random mus...
Blog Receives New Coat Of Paint
I thought it about time that “The Enormous Waste of Webspace” received a fresh coat of paint, so have uploaded a new banner graphic. For those who are wonder...
Friendfeed One Service To Rule Them All
Over the past several weeks I have been using FriendFeed as a quick and convenient means of keeping track of what’s going on in the IT world. It strikes me t...
Working From Home
Due to continual virtual private network connection issues from the company offices, I am working from home unless needed. Thankfully I live 20 minutes by mo...
The Weekend Rolls To A Stop
I don’t really recall what weekends used to be like.
Happy 4Th July
To all of my friends and family in the United States of America, happy 4th July - “Independence Day”.
Has Anybody Tried Buzzword
I discovered something rather nice recently - a web based word processor called “BuzzWord”. It’s based on Flash, and was bought by Adobe to help combat Googl...
Body Language
I sat opposite a young couple on the train this morning. She leaned against the window as one might if sat next to somebody invading your personal space. He ...
Weekends Rule
We are approaching the end of a long weekend (I had Friday off), and yet I don’t really recall much about it - although I know it was packed with activities.
Mama Mia The Movie Of The Summer
Without a shadow of a doubt, I think it’s going to be the movie of the summer. Something about it reminds me of Grease. I just wonder if the movie studio kno...
Too Many Screens
How many screens on a desktop would you consider too many?
Underground Madness
I arrived at Paddington at 8:15 this morning. I walked into the office at 9:45. The intervening hour and a half were spent underneath London, riding the hila...
Life Changing Events
Today I talked to my employers about the effects my extended absence is having on the children. I voiced my concerns.
Our First Wedding
W’s Uncle Peter got married on Saturday to a wonderful lady called Janet. The horrendous weather miraculously stayed clear throughout the day, and provided o...
Ready For Checkout
It’s Friday morning, my bags are packed, and I’m ready to get out of here. Just the small matter of the rest of the day sat in a classroom before heading hom...
The Great Hotel Adventure Day Three
It’s 8:01am, and I’m sat in my room once more, checking email, watching breakfast television, and wondering how best to spend the next hour or so. As seems t...
The 5 Real Reasons To Use Firefox 3
Unless you have been living (a) under a stone, or (b) on a desert island for the last 6 months, you will be aware that Firefox 3 has slowly churned it’s way ...
Missing My Family
I can’t sleep, and I’ve realised why. I miss my family… a lot.
The Great Hotel Adventure Day One
At 7am my Palm organiser burst into life with a quiet electronic wailing that would perhaps have been quite loud for an ant. My ear - more accustomed to hear...
Temporary Home
This is my home for the next several nights. It comes complete with a bed, a window looking out over a greenhouse full of flowers, a nice bath, a wardrobe, a...
Heading North
No, I am not about to head off for Superman’s “Fortress of Solitude” - but in some ways you might argue that I am. At 4pm this afternoon I will leave home to...
Listing Books With Goodreads
I just discovered Goodreads while looking at the list of services integrated into FriendFeed.
Kaspersky Sucks Big Donkey Balls
After AVAST Antivirus announced several weeks ago that it’s license was about to run out on the Windows machine at home (which surprised me, because it was s...
Thinking About Programming
At 6:30am this morning I found myself sat at a computer with an instant messaging window open, debugging PHP code for a friend on the west coast of America. ...
Music For A Friend
While sat on an underground train early this morning half asleep with an iPod jammed into my ears, a song broke through the layers of idiocy and made me thin...
Imagining The Tree An Approach To Describing The Software Developmentmindset
A friend commented on the tree analogy I posted, so I thought it may be prescient to re-print the original article I wrote some years ago - describing the mi...
Pickpocketed On The London Underground
It had to happen at some point. This evening while travelling home I was pickpocketed on the London Underground. I didn’t realise until I got off the train a...
Carrying The World On My Shoulders
While walking through the bustling London streets to find something to eat this lunchtime, I felt exposed - alone. I’m not quite sure what’s causing it. In t...
Star Wars On The Nintendo Ds
I finally have a copy of Star Wars for the Nintendo DS - complete with swishy light sabre noises, and tinny but thunderous music.
New Iphone Arrives Today 5 Contain Golden Tickets
Apple will finally release the new iPhone later today - so I thought it might be fun to make a list of the rumours and speculated features that are buzzing a...
Ghost In The Shell
This evening I am having the last couple of hours of the weekend to myself watching the second Ghost in the Shell movie - “Innocence”. For those who have not...
Four Months With Children
I just realised - it’s now been four months since the end of our two year odyssey through the various hurdles and high jumps of the social services system. F...
Computer Attempts Meltdown
We have several computers in our house - “the laptop” (also known as a Macbook), “the desktop” (also known as an ancient Compaq Presario that lives in the in...
Books Ebooks And Podcasts
Due to the resumption in hostilities between myself and the British transport system that has been forced upon me by my employer for the next several months,...
Riding A Bicycle To Work
At present I am commuting into the city for three days each weekand for the remaining two days I live close enough to the office to ride a mountain bike to w...
Running Out Of Pockets
While attempting to organise myself before leaving the house this morning I ran out of pockets. While this normally wouldn’t be such a huge problem, if you’r...
Working In The City
The day started for me at 5:30am, stumbling through the morning routine with a raging headache and creeping out of the house into teaming rain. Four hours la...
The Enormous Waste Of Webspace Bursts Forth
After several days thought, and a couple of evenings picking away at a wordpress theme, I finally have “my own” blog once more. My own little corner of the i...
Still Trying Out Tumblr
I’m still trying Tumblr out - it’s an alternative blogging platform to WordPress, and when allied with the Disqus commenting platform it seems to work very w...
Holiday Crash And Burns
Its late (the day after), so I’m not going to spend a great deal of time writing the story up tonight - suffice to say our tent suffered structural failure, ...
Somewhere Safe
While filling various sports bags with clothes in readiness to go camping this afternoon, we glanced from the upstairs window and spied a certain little cat ...
Going Camping
We are off camping tomorrow - taking the children on their first experience of the great outdoors (well… as much of the outdoors as the westcountry can summo...
The Wisdom Of Children
While sat watching Superman Returns with the kids this morning, they came out with something that illustrates the workings of a child’s mind far better than ...
Flirting With Tumblr
I’m flirting with the idea of using Tumblr for a personal blog once again - given the shorter nature of my posts recently, it would seem like a more persuasi...
A Beginning Of Sorts
Get the trumpets out. Blow them pretty hard. With no further ado, no quarter spared, and a promise of no further clichd figures of speech, I bestow “The Enor...
Nothing To Report
If you are wondering why there have been few blog posts from Beckett Towers over the last few days, it will be because of a lack of news. Rather than followi...
Embracing The Internet
For those who were not aware, I am back working in London. This means getting up very early, spending several hours commuting each day, and returning very la...
Music To Live A Life By
This evening is filled with preparations for my return to London in the morning - preparations to get up at some ungodly hour, and join a two hour (each way)...
Weekend Screenshot
For the curious - applications are…
Asus Eee Pc Unboxing
The postman arrived at about 10:30am this morning with the package I ordered on Thursday night - an ASUS EEE PC. In the grand tradition of being a total geek...
Returning To London
It’s looking like I’m back off to London for a few days each week to work with the same people I worked with last year.
Asus Eee Pc
After finding out that I will be travelling into London again as of next week, I lashed out on a replacement for the Macbook (which has become a “family” com...
That One
Our youngest daughter - entering her 37th month on this earth - has reached a rather interesting stage in her attempts to communicate with the world around h...
Addicted To The World
If you, like me, find yourself reading blogs in [insert RSS reader here], looking at friend’s photos on Flickr, following Facebook, and messing around with T...
Running The Marlow 5
I did ithad promised each other - half jokingly - that neither of us would train for the race this year. We bumped into each other a couple of weeks ago at o...
Photo Journey From Work To Home
For the benefit of those who live in various other places around the world, I thought it might be fun to do a photo journey from the office to home, using my...
Drifting Along
For the last few days I’ve felt like I’m drifting along with the rest of the driftwood. Getting up in the morning, doing the morning routine with the kids, w...
Gameboy Advance Sp
While at a loose end a few nights ago I wandered towards E-Bay in a dangerous manner, and ended up buying a Gameboy Advance SP for myself.
Remembering John Denver
In the aftermath of one of the most memorable and enjoyable weekends for quite some time, this evening has been the inevitable return to earth with a bump - ...
When Will The Day End
Here’s what’s happened and/or what I’ve been up to so far today, in some kind of chronological order.
First Night Out
One of our good friends arrived after dinner last night to babysit - allowing us our first night out together since the girls arrived. It felt very odd indee...
Revenant Wings And L33T Sk1Llz
This evening W came to a complete and utter halt in “Revenant Wings” - otherwise known as “Final Fantasy 12” for the Nintendo DS. After witnessing a complete...
Finding Balance In The Force
It’s hard. I’m sat here, trying to concentrate while writing this blog post. W is watching “Waking the Dead” on the television, and my good headphones are at...
Wild Hogs
We had our weekly movie/pizza/beer night last night with some great friends who live a few minutes walk across town. In a fit of panic after realising we had...
Surrendering To Illness
I haven’t been well for a week or so - but had so far just kept going - got on with things - carried on. This morning I woke with very little voice (but a ve...
Emma Watson Hayden Panettiere And Gutter Media Culture
Now and again, something happens in the media that makes me angry, and I can’t keep my mouth shut about it. This is one of those times.
The Inverse Law Of Usenet Bandwidth
While eating my lunch, I began wondering - as you do - who the person was that first came up with the term “weblog”. A baguette and a chocolate bar later, an...
Rainy Wednesday Mornings
I got up at 7am, got the kids up, got them washed, dressed, through breakfast (cereal and toast), then myself through the bathroom - shower, shave - then dre...
Memories Of 1980
While digging around in some photos on the computer this evening, I stumbled upon a folder full of scanned photographs from my childhood that we acquired las...
Blogs Bloggers And Blogging
Over the past few days I have been thinking about my involvement in the internet - the blogs I write, the communities I participate in, and the blogs I read.
Traffic Figures
The above graph illustrates the recent readership figures for my little blog. I don’t know what it means in the wider scheme of things, and I don’t really ca...
Concealing Prejudice
While sat around the dinner table this evening relating the various stories of our day to each other, after a little coaxing our eldest daughter managed to r...
Bionic Children
It’s Sunday morning and I find myself surrounded by seemingly bionic children. They powered up at about 7:30am, and have not let up all morning so far. We ar...
The Case Of The Sisters Slippers
Picture the scene - eldest daughter is watching Superman on DVD (for the first time), younger two fell asleep within a few minutes of the start of the movie,...
Changing The Look
Yes, I have changed the look and feel of this blog yet again, and yes, I am expecting some people to say “ooh, I like this”, and others to say “I was just a ...
Surviving The Weekend
Our youngest was 3 years old yesterday.
Haircut
After months of attempting to get my hair cut, I finally made it at 9 this morning - in a tight time window between getting the kids up, and W heading out to...
Another Blog
Yes, the title of this post is quite correctI have begun writing another blog. I found myself caught between a virtual rock and a hard place. While this blog...
A Day In Dads Life
I’m going to write the blog post that you just don’t see on the internet.
Getting Through The Day
Just a short note to anybody who might read it - I am logged in to Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger (aka Windows Live Messenger), ICQ and AIM at s...
Stupidly Early
I took the above photo with my trusty Sony Ericsson K800i this morning while waiting for a train at a quite ridiculous hour. When I left the house it was sti...
Travelling With Work
I’m setting my alarm for 5am tomorrow morning. I’ll leave the house at 6, and with a little luck (subject to the railway and taxi gods), I’ll arrive on-site ...
Plodding On
I am at work, the cold I have been suffering with all weekend is worse, but I am plodding on. I guess this was the “reason to get out of bed” that we talked ...
Early Morning Snow
We woke this morning with a start as a crack of thunder rolled through the sky directly above our house. You might have thought we would open the curtains to...
Broken Toe
I somehow managed to break one of my toes last night while wandering around the house in my socks. I wasn’t sure if it was broken at the time because I could...
Flying Penguins
While making various packed lunches this morning, this news story caught my eye on the BBC breakfast news broadcast…
Stories From The Lost Generationthe Elfish Gene
On the whole, our local library is pretty pathetic, but while wandering around the isles in-between extricating our children from book destroying antics, I s...
Its Turtles All The Way Down
Have just been reading the O’Reilly C# book, and came across a story I have seen before, but it always makes me laugh, so I thought I would share it…
Hierophant
You are The Hierophant
Surviving The Evening
W went out for a well deserved night out this evening with her best friend - leaving me to cook dinner, bath the kids, and get them to bed.
This Still Makes Me Laugh
In the 70s an Australian appeared on British TV screens called Rod Hull, with a puppet called “Emu”. He famously attacked several well known television chat ...
Library Fines
I am about to walk into town with the kids to return their library books and DVDs… and pay fines again.
The Post You Have Been Waiting For
A close blogging friend remarked earlier that I had not written much about the children recently, and that I should - that she enjoyed reading about our expe...
Flirting With Vox
Over the last couple of evenings I have been flirting with Vox again - looking at it, at it’s ready built community, and wondering about stepping a little si...
Back At Work
I am back at work this morning, and it feels very weird indeed. Can’t write much - am busy clearing the backlog of emails, software updates and inquisitive c...
A Few Words
I received news today that one of my closest friends is climbing out of perhaps the bleakest time of their life.
Home
We are home.
Visiting The Seaside
We left the house at 6:30am on Friday morning. After waking up following repeated bouts of car sickness over the course of our 5 hour car marathon on Friday ...
Friends
Amongst the mayhem of preparing to return to work, and to visit my parents for the first time with the girls this weekend, we had perhaps my oldest friend co...
Worn Out But Happy
I have just got back from the school run. I did the whole routine myself this morning - got all three kids up, through breakfast, washed, teeth brushed, dres...
Hilarity In The Garden
Here’s what just happened in the garden - witnessed while I was washing up and glancing out of the window from time to time…
Ironing Little Clothes
We went shopping this morning with a store card filled by the people I work with (thankyou everybody - the girls will write a suitably embarrassing thank you...
Fox No Chickens
We got up this morning and found feathers all over the chicken run, and no sign of W’s chickens. Serves us right for not closing the door to the chicken run....
British Telecom Take No Notice Of The Telephone Preference Service
In the UK we have a national database called the “Telephone Preference Service” - if you are on the list it is illegal for anybody to try and cold-call you a...
The Amazing Disappearing Man
Since we have had the children, the weight has been falling off us. I am now lighter than I have been in years. Although I will not give W’s weight away (I m...
Danger Rocks Messenger Bag
cross-posted from PluggedOut
Cereal Toast Tiredness
The last few days have seemed like hard work - and I’m not really sure why. Perhaps it’s the added complication of toast on a morning (we decided to give the...
A Walk In The Woods
We spent this afternoon in the local woods, encouraging the girls to run riot. Given their background, it is hardly surprising that they don’t know what to d...
Filling The Day
W has gone on a school trip with our eldest daughter today - acting as a helper. I’m almost apprehensive about the state she will return in.
Petite Anglaise On Bbc Breakfast
In between packing lunchboxes, getting dressed, and fielding “can we…” requests from our younger children this morning, W shouted from the kitchen “Catherine...
Wondering About The Future Of This Blog
With the advent of services such as FriendFeed and Pownce, I am wondering if this personal blog may eventually die - or at least become stagnant. With friend...
Every Day Seems Like An Achievement
At the moment, every single day seems to be an achievement to be earned. We have still not survived a single day without a tantrum from one of the children; ...
35 Years Old
Here’s what I got for my birthday from Wend…
Visiting Family
Today was the girls first visit to W’s parents house. I’m pleased to say it went really well, and I don’t think we wrecked the place too much.
Experimenting With Pownce
I am experimenting with the Pownce messaging service as perhaps an alternative or addition to a regular blog. I have written about Pownce at PluggedOut if yo...
Riding A Bicycle
On monday evening our eldest returned home from school to find a “first bike” in our back garden - donated by a friend. Although the bike is a little small f...
The Girls Like Kylie Thank The Maker
While scratching around for some music to put on for the girls to dance to earlier, I had a brainwave. They had never seen Kylie Minogue before. They have no...
The Morning Routine
I didn’t get up until 7:10 this morning… it’s funny how those few minutes can cause such a rush later on. Part of the reason was because W banged her head ye...
Toy Kitchens
No apologies for the 1970s advert from YouTube above. Our younger kids have been given a play kitchen by our friends, and have spent all afternoon engrossed ...
Reflecting On The First Weeks
While taking a break from the mayhem that tends to unfold throughout our house between 7am and 7pm each day, I thought it might be worth looking back at our ...
One Thing After Another
Yesterday was a nightmare, and today isn’t looking any better so far.
Returning To The Office
I will be going to visit work tomorrow for an hour - the first time I have been back since leaving in late February to begin our adoption journey. It’s going...
Experimenting With Vox
Many moons ago I had an account at Vox - I was one of the beta testers when it was being developed too.
Waking Up Early
I have been awake since 5am when the youngest woke and started crying. I had no idea why, and neither did she - as soon as I walked in the bedroom door she w...
Observations From A Day Out
We took the children to the farm again today - to see (and feed) the animals, and to play on the adventure playground. We didn’t really give much thought to ...
Washing Up
Today I have been mostly washing up. Usually I switch off while washing things up, but this evening while drying the fourth sink full in a row, I became awar...
Planting Things
This morning was occupied with the children’s first experience of planting things. We are all growing Sun Flowers in a competition of sorts to see who does t...
Another Friday
It is 9:35am. I have already been up for nearly 4 hours. That’s all I want to say about that.
10 Random Facts
My oldest and most close internet friend carefully avoided including me in a “tagged” blog meme, so I am replying to the request anyway. I have no idea what ...
How To Begin Valentines Day
… by getting up at 4am to tell the children to go back to bed, and then getting back up at 6:45am to wash one of them after she had another very messy accide...
The First Accident
I woke suddenly to the sound of crying this morning, and ran into the bathroom - hastily tying my robe on the way.
Resuming Normal Blogging Service
After a couple of weeks writing each evening with the various adventures and dramas surrounding us, I am returning to normal blogging service today. We are n...
Day Fourteen Meeting Nan And Grandad
Today started at 7am with the sounds of laughter and little people shouting instructions to each other across the landing. I got up and made my way down for ...
Day Thirteen Winning And Losing
Today was a very up and down day. Highs and lows.
Day Twelve A Walk In The Woods
We took the kids out for a walk in a nearby meadow today. Several square miles of open land with no roads, and very few people. We encouraged them to explore...
Day Eleven The Food Fight Starts
Okay - we finally have something to think about.
Day Ten Turning The Schedule Around
We turned the children’s schedule around today, and made life very much easier for ourselves.
Day Nine Not Taking Them Back
The alarm clock went off at 7:30am, as it has for the past several weeks. It did not wake us - we had been awake since about 5am, tossing and turning. Althou...
Day Eight Ends And Beginnings
We met with the social services staff this morning to review our first few days with the children, and decide if to extend the introductions period. We thoug...
Day Seven The Eve Of Yet Another Decision
I am finding it difficult to find subjects to write about - not because I am shielding any great confidences, but because normality seems to have descended t...
Day Six Slowing Everything Down
After perhaps the most difficult day yesterday we were determined to take a step back today and slow everything down.
Day Five Discovering The New House
At about 10:30 this morning there was a knock on our front door, which opened to show several smiling little faces, followed by their foster carer who also h...
Day Four Rainy Day Indoors
Today had originally been planned as our first day out with the children - but due to our already having done that, and torrential rain throughout the day, w...
Day Three A Trip To The Farm
We were thrown in at the deep end today. What had been planned as a day with the foster carer turned into us taking the children out for the first time on ou...
Day Two Were Still Standing
Observation of day two? Probably that it’s all getting a lot easier.
Learning To Be Called Daddy
We survived. We have now met our children, who called us “Mummy and Daddy” straight off the bat. Very, very weird - but not the biggy.
The Weekend Continues With New Friends
Following our marathon week of evenings out, and dinners with friends, we are rolling towards the end of the tracks today with perhaps the most interesting m...
Stairgates And Coffee
I have spent the greater part of the day constructing stair gates for the door between the kitchen and the lounge, the base of the stairs, and the upstairs l...
Wrestling With Privacy Concerns
At the moment this blog is very candid indeed - and always has been. While this isn’t a problem for us at the moment, it does raise concerns for the near fut...
The Adventure Starts Here
I finished work this evening, and don’t go back for 2 months. During the coming weeks I have to learn how to be a Dad to several small children.
Last Day Of Work
The wonderful lady in the photo above is attending her last day of work today. For nearly 20 years she has been pursuing a career in accounting, and for the ...
Wednesday Night Is Curry Night
Three days to go after today, and we found ourselves visiting our friends for a takeaway curry (and several bottles of wine, and to offload some of the eggs ...
Single Digits Counting The Days Until We Meet Our Future Children
I wanted to clear something up - it would appear many of those who have commented seem to think that we have a few days left until our house is populated wit...
Night Out With Friends
To mark the start of our “farewell tour”, we went out for dinner at W’s favourite restaurant last night with our friends.
Since You Left College
This is my answer to a meme I thought up at lunchtime. The general idea is to state how many years it has been since you were in education, and then answer e...
How Many Years Since I Left College
While talking to one of my colleagues earlier, I realised it has been 17 years since I left college - and nearly 20 years since I left school. I am in a stat...
When Fellow Bloggers Collide
Do you ever wonder if somebody will tap you on the shoulder in the street, and whisper “I read your blog” ? I do. I can’t really call it a fear as such, more...
Time For A Confession
I just bought the components to prolongue the life of the desktop computer at home.
The One Where I Dont Upgrade The Computer
Our computer (the Windows XP desktop) at home started to disintegrate this morning in noisy fashion. Following the school of thought that says “you should ne...
Meet The Chickens
Sunday morning in a mud filled garden - meet Teagan and Morwenna. There is another chicken (Demelza) somewhere in the garden - probably following W in the ho...
Guess Who Left His Phone At Work And Then Found It
I left my mobile phone at work. I feel like I’m cut off from the world… it’s very, very weird indeed.
Building Furniture And Writing Code
I built two IKEA units today - a huge chest of drawers for our bedroom (to hopefully solve the problem of piles of clothes everywhere), and a full-height she...
Work Ikea Tired Soaked And Aching
I am soaked to the skin once again (through my waterproofs) after cycling to work through the great deluge. Predictably it has stopped raining now. I’m start...
Bobby Fischer The Anti Hero Has Died
Robert James Fischer, perhaps the most gifted chess player the world has ever seen, has died in Iceland aged 64.
Needful Things That I Wont Be Getting Any Time Soon
As we roll ever faster into 2008, and huge changes in our home and family life approach, I somehow feel compelled to make a list of the things I would very m...
Freedom Feels Very Strange
It feels very strange, having a personal blog again. While it’s liberating to think “I can write about whatever I like”, it also causes the question “what th...
Answering Important Questions For Our Time
In the previous post, I invited people to ask me random questions, and promised to answer them. After spendingoh, secondspicking which ones to answer, here a...
Tired And Soaked To The Skin
I have just got off my bike after cycling to work (and no, the photo is not of me). The weather outside was just what I needed after having Flu throughout Ch...
Refueling The Children With A Dvd
Over the past several days we have been carrying a video camera around with us and recording as many normal activities as possible, in preparation to make a ...
Pixars New Baby Wall E
I have just been watching the trailer for the new Pixar movie “Wall E”…
A Trip Into Town And A Chicken Encounter
Videos recorded to as part of a DVD for our future children to help them get through the next couple of weeks while waiting for the adoption introductions to...
A Departure From Pluggedout
Following a completely unexpected change of track at PluggedOut where I have posted under the category “geekery” almost exclusively since Christmas, I have d...
The Great Windows Re Install
Following our purchase of a shiny new multi-function printer/scanner as reported yesterday, and the prospect of installing the drivers and using Photoshop a ...
The Musical Horoscope Meme
I saw this first here, and then here, and thought “I have to try that”here are the rules, and the results
Making Your Blog Search Engine Friendly
I have cross posted this from it’s original place at the “Community of Bloggers” - an open forum for discussion of all things related to writing and running ...
Internet Commenter Business Meeting
Have you ever wondered what would happen if a business meeting evolved in the same manner as a posting on Facebook, Digg, Slashdot, or Reddit? Wonder no more...
The One Where I Talk About Books
After reading Quarter Rest earlier, I realised it might be an idea to have a page here at PluggedOut about the books I am either reading, or have recently re...
Telling The Children
Our future children were told of our existence today - told that they have a new Mummy and Daddy. Their foster carer broke the news early this afternoon arme...
10 Websites To Get You Through The Day
I thought it might be interesting for others, and maybe helpful to share the websites I frequent on a regular basis. I spent inordinate amounts of time campe...
2007
Images From London
With one day left on my contract in London, I have started taking photographs of colleagues and places - and writing a lot in my notebook.
4 Days Left In London
It is Monday morning. I have 4 days left working in London. In a strange sort of way I am going to miss the people I work with - for the last 10 months I hav...
Find Me Some Christmas Spirit
For some reason, Christmas isn’t happening in our house. Neither of us have any will to do anything remotely connected with Christmas. We’re wondering if it’...
An Image Speaks A Thousand Words
We were given a 20 minute video of our future children last night by their foster carer.
Fishy Fishy Fishy
I promised to post some photos of our fish, and here they are…
Rumours Of My Demise
The reason for so few blog posts - and so few comments from me on other’s blogs over the last several days - has been the finale in the saga of my body’s def...
Mybook Solves Storage Problem
The nice man from the post office arrived at our door yesterday carrying a parcel from Amazon. Unwrapping it revealed the Western Digital “MyBook” we bought ...
Missed The Best Party Of The Year
We are both at home ill now, and made to feel even worse by the knowledge that we missed W’s work’s christmas party last night - which was held at Pinewood s...
Webdrifter Gets All Galactic
I discovered a new video podcast this morning - Webdrifter. It’s part of the Revision 3 network, which also put out Diggnation and GigaOM.
The One About Python And Sqlite
This marks the first time I have written a technical post in the blog since I “crossed the streams” (in true Ghostbusters fashion) a little while ago. Many o...
Still Coughing Still Sniffing And Sneezing
This is getting beyond a joke - I have now been ill for nearly a month and a half. I’m inclined to think that I have actually had three different colds back ...
Sex Trends On Google
Give me ten minutes free time on the internet, and look what I come up with. I typed the word “sex” into Google Trends to see how often it gets searched for ...
The One About The Length Of My Hair
Following a request to put up images comparing the various lengths of my hair over the last two years, I put together a “montage” of sorts.
The Chain Letter From Hell
I don’t normally take part in Memes, but seeing as this was passed on by Ashley, who’s blog I like rather a lot, I thought it might serve as a good distracti...
Texas Haircut Massacre
The long hair that once adorned my head has now gone. Consigned to history. A footnote in my life story.
Christmas Party Decorating New Bike And Pond Destruction
The weekend for us started on Friday evening with the work Christmas party, held at the house of the managing director.
The Office Christmas Party
Tonight is the night of the office Christmas party, held at the house of our Managing Director this year.
We Apologise For The Late Running Of This Service
After nearly coughing my lungs up during the night, I awoke this morning with a curiously clear throat, and thought perhaps the day ahead might be a good one...
More Than A Few Words About Pluggedout
Those who visit the PluggedOut website will perhaps be wondering what on earth has happened - the website has changed considerably once again. I have been ti...
Time Off And Tony Hawks
I have now had a cold for a month. I should be in the Guinness book of World Records or something. If the causes of colds are to be believed, I could qualify...
Changing The Theme
I find myself wondering if the dalliance with the “Hemmingway” theme on PluggedOut will have caused irreparable damage to the few who wander past and read, o...
And So It Startsgolden Compass Condemned By The Church
I guessed this would happen some time ago, and today the headlines appeared on the BBC News website. A group called “The Catholic League” has condemned the n...
Kasparov Arrested
The former Chess world champion Garry Kasparov has been arrested in Russia for daring to take part in a march against Vladimir Putin.
The Week In One Post
After several days spent being pulled between work, home, and all kinds of thoughts about adoption, the week has flown past.
Jonathans Christmas Wishlist
Following pressure from friends and family, I have updated my list on Wishlistr with the things I would like for christmas…
Sony Dcr Hc27
While W was busy entertaining her friends yesterday evening (I gather it was body-shop style girlie shopping party type thing), I went looking on the interne...
Watch This Space
Several of my friends and colleagues have reminded me that I can actually draw, and they would like to see a version of my world turned into an online comic ...
The Beginnings Of A Comic Strip Character
In a shameless attempt to draw a version of myself as a cartoon character over the last half an hour, I came up with the following…
Lethargy
Apologies for anybody passing by my blog and expecting to read insightful stories, opinions and thoughts.
Grumpy Old Man In The Supermarket
Something happened yesterday that has cheered me up no end.
Doctor Who Time Crash
During BBC’s Children In Need programming last night, in between showcasing the Spice Girls, Boyzone, and the wonderful Kylie Minogue, they aired a specially...
British Museum And Science Museum
While taking a break for lunch from my usual software developer duties, I have the chance to upload the photos from our visit to the British Museum and Scien...
Warriors At The British Museum
I had the day off work today to visit the British Museum with W and her parents - with tickets for 1st Emperor of China exhibition. No cameras, phones, or an...
The Map That Changed The World
Over the past several days I have been reading a book my better half bought for me at the Natural History Museum in London - “The Map That Changed the World”...
Just A Few Words
Just a few words today before heading out into the rain on the streets of London to find something to eat.
Artwork From The Archives
Many years ago I studied art at college. While digging around in the loft recently, what once was lost became found once more.
Written On A Sunday Night
Winter has announced it’s imminent approach in recent days. Leaves have now fallen from trees, and a silent cold darkness races through late afternoon to bla...
Pizza The Breakfast Of Kings
It’s 10:30am on Sunday morning, I am still sat in my pyjamas and robe, have still not had a wash, or shave, and look for all the world like “the missing link...
The Blockbuster Bargain Bin Strikes Again
While struggling into town with a bad cold to buy medicine, tissues, and food earlier I stopped at Blockbuster to raid their bargain bin for second hand vide...
The Adoption Journey Continues
This morning we were visited by our social worker, the social worker acting on behalf of our prospective children, and the social worker who took them from t...
10 Years Ago San Francisco
While looking through the attic for an old piece of computer hardware earlier, I came across a shoebox full of photographs - among them the long forgotten ph...
The Great British Pub Quiz
We are going to the pub tonight, to participate in the weekly ritual of the great British “Pub Quiz” with some friends. W insists she will be okay even thoug...
The Trolley Bag Morons
From small acorns might oak trees grow - and so do annoyances that could eventually end up with me kicking somebody to the ground in the middle of a busy rai...
What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks
Isn’t it wonderful when a day starts out well, turns into a steaming pire of excrement, and then finally bursts forth into a feel good evening, with reminder...
Working Late
Do you ever have days when the world slides off the rails, and no matter what you think or do, nothing really helps and you can’t see a way to make everybody...
The Face Of Tutankhamun
In order to protect the mummy of Tutankhamun against damage from exposure, his remains have been transferred to a glass box within the Cairo museum. While ex...
Autumn In Harleyford
I walked to work this morning, bedecked in fleece, scarf, woolly hat and backpack (carrying two laptops - I am mad).
Righting Wrongs At The Natural History Museum
While visiting London with friends recently, we took the chance to visit the British Museum of Natural History. It’s a wonderful, cavernous old building in K...
Apple Prepares The Uk Iphone
News is starting to appear this weekend that the Apple iPhone is arriving at stores throughout the UK in readiness for sales to begin on November 9th.
The Macbook Survives The Apple Osx Leopard Upgrade
While out supposedly buying something for lunch on Friday I got sucked into the local Apple store in London, and walked back out with a copy of Leopard. For ...
Saturday Morning
The soft light from the desk lamp paints the keyboard. It is 11am, Saturday morning. For the first time in days I have no plans.
Hooligans Disrupt My Journey Home
Once again this evening I was reminded why I don’t like football.
Simplification
While sat here becoming frustrated with having a cold, feeling rubbish, and wishing the world could simplify itself a little, I spent the last hour deleting ...
Nablopomo Between A Rock And A Hard Place
Last year I took part in “National Blog Posting Month” - also known as “NaBloPoMo” - the quest to write a blog post on each day of November. I discovered it ...
Groggy
I am at home with a cold. It’s been tagging along with me for the last couple of weeks, and I think somehow my body had worked a miracle to keep it away at l...
Friends
I have been off work for the last two days attempting to defeat a cold that has been hanging around for a couple of weeks. The self imposed exile from the wo...
Apple Osx 105 Leopard Arrives
Microsoft’s worst nightmare is coming to pass. Apple’s new operating system, OSX 10.5 “Leopard” is out, and it’s exceeding expectations almost everywhere.
Disenchanted
In perhaps the first openly critical blog post I have ever written, I wrote this earlier this evening over on my technical blog.
The Phantom Hourglass
While out buying some lunch in London yesterday lunchtime I wandered into the Virgin Megastore and bought W the game she has been waiting almost 2 years for ...
Short Sighted
Over the last few days I have become somewhat vexed by the short sighted view that many seem to hold with regard to the internet, the community that inhabits...
A Lull In The Adoption Journey
We find ourselves becalmed at the moment.
A Weekend In Photos
For one reason or another I have had no time to write a blog over the last few days. A mixture of apathy, real life getting in the way, and fun stuff (such a...
Biting Off More Than I Can Chew
About a month ago I wrote a quick email to the people behind NaBloPoMo asking what their plans were for this year. I offered assistance, and to tell the trut...
Tuesday Starts Famously
This morning evolved in the same manner as slow motion film of a car crash. You could see exactly what was going to happen, and there was very little that co...
Life And Death
While stopping for a cup of coffee earlier today I checked in to a writing group I have been fostering and was dismayed to find that somebody I thought of as...
Archbishop Of Caterbury Attacks Atheism
While reading the newspaper this weekend, I happened upon the story involving the Archbishop of Caterbury - Dr. Rowan Williams - attacking Richard Dawkins, h...
Sunday Morning Disappears
At this point in time, I’m not entirely sure where Sunday morning went. I got up, had a cup of tea, had a shower, checked my email, peered out the window at ...
Seduced By The Nintendo Ds
Finally, after watching my other half play on hers for several years, I have succumbed to temptation. It happened while wandering around Gamestation in Maide...
Computers Take Over My Life
Several things happened this week, each of which has more or less dictated the next; W’s old laptop died. Perhaps “died” is the wrong word. Her laptop - whic...
I Want One Of These
I keep wandering into shops in London at lunchtime, and seeing Nintendo DS Lites for sale, and thinking what a great idea they would be to carry with me on t...
Stephen Fry And Anger About Hiv
For the last hour I have been watching a wonderful documentary on the BBC following Stephen Fry as he discovers the various personal stories of people with H...
Contemporary Dance In London
While wandering back towards Liverpool Street from Moorgate this lunchtime, I came across a street performer…
Blog Friday Different
The word this week at BlogFriday is “Different”. While searching through the various junk in the corners of my mind that might fit against “different”, I wan...
Going Live
Yesterday evening I stayed late to help fire-fight in the go-live of the project I have been working on for the last six months. I finally found myself wande...
Breakfast At Tiffanys
Inbetween perusing the internet (which Leo Laporte quite wonderfully described as a “drinking from the firehose” recently), I have been watching “Breakfast a...
An Awfully Big Adventure
After spending the best part of the last two years climbing a seemingly never ending hill towards a very abstract goal - “being allowed to adopt children”, w...
Approved To Adopt Children
After two years of soul searching, reading, studying, attending courses, and having every nook and cranny of our professional, social and personal lives inve...
Measuring The Speed Of Light With A Bar Of Chocolate
The following “back yard” science experiment was copied from the “Times Online” website - I hope they don’t mind me re-publishing an excerpt of their article...
Eve Of The Adoption Review Panel
We go up in front of the adoption review panel tomorrow morning - to get the final rubber stamp on us being able to adopt children. If they approve us, we mo...
Deciding On A Smaller Messenger Bag
After carrying my Macbook across London in it’s Messenger bag during the London Underground strike last month for several days, I somehow managed to injure m...
Well It Made Me Laugh
My friend Tracey, who writes at Gwelva Kernewek (very good blog btw) sent me a link to a t-shirt store on the internet today.
Blogfriday Breaks Cover
I travelled home on the train tonight with an idea in my head. An idea for a blogging website.
Wondering About Nablopomo 2007
During November last year I took part in “National Blog Posting Month” (NaBloPoMo), and had great fun doing so. For those wondering what on earth I am on abo...
Remembering More Innocent Times
After a somewhat embattled and stressful week, I found myself slumped on the couch with the first cup of tea of the day this morning, and discovered that one...
Unboxing The Moo Cards
My “moo” cards finally arrived today, so I have done the honours, and photographed the unboxing for your interest and amusement.
The Planets Align
Since the weekend I have felt there is some kind of long term change in the air. I’m not sure what it might be, or how it might manifest itself, but somethin...
The Long Road
Something has been on my mind recently. An annoyance, if you will.
The Eve Of The Cook Out
In the style of Captain Oates, I am going to start this weekend with the words “I’m just going outside, I may be some time”.
Excerts From The Moleskine
If you have been reading “Life and Times” for some time, you may be aware that I also write in a notebook that I carry with me - a trusty “Moleskine”. Withou...
The Nature Of Greatness
I missed the train this morningor rather, I forgot to pick my work laptop up when I left the house, and by the time I had remembered and returned for it ther...
Oops She Did It Again
I was checking the visitor statistics for “Life and Times” this morning, and was rather shocked to see a significant spike in hits over the last two days. It...
Not Enough Hours In The Day
Do you ever wonder where your weekend goes?
More Commuting Hell
I’m not quite sure what I’ve done, but it really, really hurts when I lift my left leg. Curiously, I have discovered that while walking, the weight of your l...
First Ever Medical
As a part of the marathon-like journey towards adopting children, we both had to get full medicals from our doctors today. Having never had a medical in my l...
Stop The World
I seem to find myself writing “Stop the World” posts every so often. This week has been hard - one of the most difficult in a long time.
Some Fun To Start The Day Fridge Poetry
In a fit of cleverness last night I build a new webpage, pretty much “just because I could”
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows
It is done. I have finally finished reading the last of J.
In Need Of A Wrist Watch
On Monday evening my watch stopped. I’m tempted to recite lines from “My Grandfather’s Clock” but seeing as I have no plans on dropping dead in the near futu...
Starting An Eccentric Online Endeavour
A few weeks ago while browsing through the book store at Paddington Station in London, I came across a book where the author had “traded up” from a paper cli...
Nobody Will Ever Believe Me
While walking through the tunnel towards the east-bound circle line train at Paddington this morning, I could see a train in the distance with it’s doors ope...
Strange Thing This Internet
Following the decision not to go and see the new Harry Potter movie earlier this evening, I thought it might be fun to fill the time I would otherwise have s...
Juggling Too Many Plates
I’ve been having something of a tidy up both my computer and the internet this afternoon, and realised just how far the tentacles of my internet presence spr...
Hitting The Pause Button
I had so many plans this weekend. Go running, go to the cinema, sort the garden out, go and buy clothes. I have done none of these things. I am also aware th...
Another Day Starts
My watch ticks past 7am, and I sit on the train once more waiting to leave Marlow - bound for London. A light rain is falling, moistening the air. The world ...
Game The System
I have just been taking a look at the Bloggers Choice Awards website, and never realised before that the number of votes received by the “top blogs” tails of...
Running Again
I just got back from a 2 mile run.
Answering The Questions
In a recent blog post (“A Social Experiment - Ask Me Anything”) I asked for any questions people would like to ask me, with the promise that I would answer t...
Word Blind And Scattegories
We started out on a great new idea last night - spending an evening each week either at our house or a friend’s house playing board games - helped along with...
A Social Experiment Ask Me Anything
Here’s a challenge. Ask me anything you like in the comments to this post, and I will answer in the next post.
Its All About Me
Following my struggle to find anything of interest to write about in recent times, friends and acquaintances have provided a gentle nudge in the ribs, and th...
Blackmail On E Bay
cross-posted from my other blog, because I feel this is important…
Tank Girl Rules
While travelling home on Thursday evening last week I made a detour through London to “Forbidden Planet” - quite possibly the best cult book/movie/toy shop i...
Losing My Voice
Over the last few days I have struggled to find things to write about - to find my voice.
Welcome To My World
The place - Sloe, Paddington Station
Thoughtless Travellers Decorating And Adoption
The train journey between Marlow and Bourne End (the first leg of my morning commute) lasts about 10 minutes. Because Marlow doesn’t have a train station, a ...
Currently Readingjpod
Over the last couple of days I have been reading “jPod” by Douglas Coupland. My other half read “Microserfs” many years ago and has repeatedly told me I need...
Theres This Girl
There’s this girl that gets on the train at Maidenhead, and she doesn’t shut up. Ever. I swear she doesn’t breath either - at least not in through her mouth ...
The Morning Post
It’s 7:16, it’s Monday morning, and the train will be leaving Marlow at any minute. I’m ready to fall asleep right here and now while sat on the train, but b...
Pub Quiz
My cousin from San Francisco (who is living in London at the moment) came to visit over the last couple of evenings. I would like to think she came to stay j...
On Friendship
Through many times in my life I have struggled to find the place where being a good person ends, and friendship begins - and where friendship ends and love b...
Bicycle Crashes And Drunk Scotsmen
While walking round the corner towards the office door this morning I heard a huge crash behind me and the kind of thuddy crunch noise a person makes as they...
The Return Of Thoughtcafe
cross posted from PluggedOut
Poking Your Friends
Does nobody else think it’s a little weird to “poke” your friends on Facebook?
An Uncomfortable Journey
The journey into work this morning was uncomfortable, but not for a reason you might imagine.
George Michael At Wembley Stadium
We set off late this afternoon for Wembley Stadium in London to see George Michael live in concert. Here are a few of the photos from the afternoon (they are...
Rise Of The Lego Men
I just created the most ridiculous wallpaper ever
Awaiting The Adoption Interview
I am working from home this morning while waiting for the lady from the adoption services team to arrive. Normally these meetings have happened first thing o...
Another Oasis In The City
While trundling towards Liverpool Street on the London Underground this morning the driver crackled over the public address system “This train will be termin...
Surviving The Morning Commute
It’s 7:17am, and the train is just about to leave Marlow station (as I type, the engines roar, and we rumble forth into the bright morning sunshine).
A Summer Place
While out having a wander in the nearby streets at lunchtime, I happened upon perhaps the only green area for miles in central London, and while sat eating m...
Pirates Of The Carribbean At Worlds End
Arriving at the cinema a week after it opened, we finally went to see the final “Pirates of the Carribbean” movie last night - “At World’s End”.
Oh Dear Our Cat Has Joined Facebook
I don’t believe it… our cat is on Facebook…
Its The Weekend
Finally, it’s the weekend. Before starting, I would like to promise to anybody and everybody who knows me that I will make no further mention of “Big Brother...
Big Brother Series 8 The Housemates
Last night I watched the first hour of the 8th series of Big Brother in the UK. I have no idea if the UK series has been in the headlines elsewhere in the wo...
Big Brother Starts Again
I just sat down to watch television for a bit before going to bed, and it would appear a new series of Big Brother is starting this evening in the UK.
The Sketchbook Comes Out
After something in the region of 6 years I fished a sketchbook out of the attic tonight, and started drawing. I’ve been meaning to do this for a LONG time… a...
Playing With Fire
On Friday night I installed a “Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game” (MMORPG) on W’s laptop called “Dofus” for her to try out. At the time she said...
A Lonely Place
Sometimes the internet can be a very lonely place - especially when you keep in touch with most of your friends via the internet, and their names don’t light...
If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things
While commuting I seem to be going through fads of either reading RSS feeds and writing emails on the laptop, listening to podcasts and music, or reading boo...
Astronaut Duran Duran
While reading various news stories recently, I learned that Duran Duran had fallen apart once more. While this isn’t exactly earth shattering news in and of ...
Chaos And Mayhem
Last night I put my “other” pair of work trousers in the dryer, and set it for 2 hours just before going to bed. This morning I checked them, and they were s...
Being The Computer Guy
Just watching the latest edition of Diggnation on the train, and they are talking about a post on Digg detailing the top 10 problems with being a “computer g...
Steve Jobs Versus Bill Gates
I first found out about this video while watching the MoBuzzTV video podcast on my way in this morning. I’m taking my coffee break to share it…
Wendy Completes The Moonwalk
My considerably better half travelled into London on Saturday night in order to do the “Moonwalk” - a charity 26.2 mile power walk through the streets of Lon...
Being Conventional
If you walked past our bathroom in the early hours of the morning you might be forgiven for thinking that I am half asleep while leaning towards the mirror, ...
People On Trains
While making my way across Paddington station this evening I seem to have found myself in “people watching” mode. As an aside, does stating that I was operat...
Relativity
We visited some friends a couple of nights ago, and - quite bizarrely - the conversation somehow turned to space travel, and that one of our friends couldn’t...
Seduced By Facebook
I spend a lot of time using the internet. Between the web, instant messaging, email and VOIP, it must add up into the tens of hours every week. While travers...
Is There A God
Something is happening to one of my friends on the other side of the world that is giving me a perfect reason to set out my stand and start arguing to anybod...
Boot Eskdale And Hardknott
We are back! On Saturday morning we left the south of England, and headed to the “Lake District” - a national park in the north west of England. It’s the mos...
Lake District Here We Come
Early tomorrow morning we will leave home with a car packed full of tents, sleeping bags, waterproofs, warm clothes, walking boots, camping stove, and variou...
Asleep On My Feet
My grand plans to use the day more productively haven’t got off to a very good start - I am therefore drinking a huge cappucino in the cafe above the concors...
The Pirates Of Silicon Valley
While crashed on the couch this afternoon I sat and watched the movie “The Pirates of Silicon Valley” - a made for TV movie from the late 1990s that tries to...
More Clothing
While crashed out on the couch (I am off work with a virus today), it turns out W (who is also off work) was buying things on the internet.
The Clothes Shopping Starts
I finally started buying clothes today - not specifically to replace anything in my wardrobe; more to help me survive our camping trip next week. We are goin...
The Prestige
A few evenings ago, W and I sat down to watch a movie I bought several weeks ago - “The Prestige”.
The Belated Morning Post
It’s 7:15, and the train will be leaving the station in a few minutes.
The Annual Wardrobe Renewal
After talking to W this afternoon it looks very much like I will be heading out over the next couple of weeks to do my spectacular wardobe renewal. Although ...
Youve Got Mail
We are just sat here watching one of the many “100 best” programmes on television. This particular programme is the 100 most romantic movies. At number 30 th...
Flash Me
While trying to ascend the mountain of blogs that my blogroll has formed over the last few weeks, I came across the post “Flash Me” on “All About Jenny” - so...
The World Of The Small
It’s a wonderful afternoon in the UK - the sun is out, birds are singing, and things are growing in the garden. I grabbed the camera, switched it onto “macro...
Goodbye Twitter Hello Jaiku
After the discovery of Jaiku earlier this week, I have decided to stop using Twitter.
Changing The Banner Artwork
I felt the banner artwork of Mario was getting a little old, so had a scout around on the internet for something new - something different.
Isnt It Time For Some Photographs
I have been carrying my camera phone around with me for the last few weeks, and not really keeping up my end of the bargain - recording the more interesting ...
Itchy Fingers
It’s been several months since I built anything on the web, and I’m starting to get itchy fingers. I want to build something.
What Is Happening To America
Over the past few days I have seen some of the media coverage of the shootings in Virginia. Inevitably, after the news channels had reported the available in...
The Morning Post
I regularly write an email to a few close friends on the internet, and thought it might be nice to post it both out to those who matter, and to my blog for a...
Changing The Way I Use Twitter
This has been cross-posted from PluggedOut, because I feel it is important.
Wendy Loses Sock Madness
W (my wonderful other half) has been taking part in a sock knitting competition on the internet recently called “Sock Madness”. It would appear there are far...
Victory In The Pub Quiz
We won our local pub quiz last night for the first time. We have come joint first before, but last night they changed the format of the quiz - meaning the mu...
First Adoption Interview
Yesterday I had the first interview with an adoption services representative at home - taking us a little closer to the review panel later in the year that w...
Curmudgeonly
I have just spent the last two hours on the train home from London trying not to cause an argument over a number of small children that got on the train with...
Tired
I woke at 5am this morning, and didn’t go back to sleep. This would have been fine if I hadn’t gone to bed at 1am. 4 hours sleep can’t be good, can it.
Retail Therapy
After spending the first three days of a 4 day break decorating the house, we finally put down tools, paintbrushes and paint today, and had a day to ourselve...
Decorating And Curry
While spending 90% of the weekend transforming our two spare bedrooms into liveable (and safe) future bedrooms for children, the other 10% was spent taking t...
Happy Easter
I finished work for easter today - I have the long weekend off before returning to work next tuesday. With so many bible bashers climbing out of the woodwork...
Thick Head
I’m not at work today. I’m sure if I appeared in the computer game “Theme Hospital”, they would diagnose me with some weird sounding thing called “thick head...
King Of Shaves Turns Up Trumps
“Turns up trumps”? I’m wondering if I need to define what these words mean before continuing with this blog entry… perhaps not - perhaps they use the term el...
Weekend In Cornwall
It’s 8am on Sunday morning, and I have been up since 7 this morning when the dogs asked to go out. We are staying in the south west of England - Cornwall - w...
Talland Cornwall
We arrived in Cornwall just after 7pm last night after a nightmare journey that found us stuck in just about every build-up of traffic between Marlow and Ply...
Blagging It With King Of Shaves
Those who read my blog regularly will know that I recently posted the start of a series entitled “A Day In My Life”, which described my typical morning routi...
Ip Address Blocking Doesnt Work
I just want to flag this up for anybody who happens to read this blog. If you are looking at ways of stopping spam on your blog, do not use IP address blocki...
View From A Train Window
It’s just coming up to 6pm, and I’m on the journey home. Slightly strangely, this post will not hit the blog until after 7, due to a couple of reasons I won’...
Sunday Off
It’s 2pm on Sunday afternoon, and I’m having a quiet day at home. I say quiet, but there is the constant rumble of the washing machine and tumble drier in th...
Idiocracy
After hearing about it on the MacBreak podcast a couple of weeks ago, I have aquired a copy of the movie “Idiocracy”. It’s one of the funniest movies I have ...
A Day In My Life Morning
Simpson, being furious.
Girls In London Are Pretty
I am busy building a line of sandbags to hide behind in response to the title of this post. It all dawned on me while walking back towards the office from Pr...
Why I Dont Like Football
Football is a sport played by under educated, over paid psychophants. When not trying to cheat each other, they run to the referee of a match as small childr...
To Show Or Not To Show
Simple question. What works for you? Seeing more, or seeing less?
Gran Turismo 4
A good friend of mine has just bought a Playstation 2, and it would appear the entire family have become addicted to Gran Turismo 4 - probably one of the bes...
Pub Quiz
Apologies for such a late (and brief) posting. We just got back from the local pub quiz. We came joint first, and won nothing because the pub have a policy o...
Ridiculous Overcrowding
The underground trains were so overcrowded this morning it could have been funny. I have never seen it like it.
Morning Mist On The Thames
You know how sometimes you take a photo, and the planets seem to line up in your favour? It happened to me this morning…
Scrapbooking With Tumblr
This is rare. I am going to cross-post between PluggedOut and Life and Times. There’s a good reason though - this morning I have been looking at Tumblr.
More Photographs
Okay - after finally scraping myself out of bed at about 8:30, and watching rubbish television for an hour I finally had a shower, got dressed, cleaned the k...
Afternoon In Higginson Park
It has been unseasonably warm and sunny this weekend in Marlow, so W and I took it upon ourselves to go for a stroll in Higginson Park - about a mile from wh...
New Mobile
I have finally joined the “modern age” of mobile telephony, after purchasing a Sony Ericsson K800i this morning, and signing up for a contract with T-Mobile....
Spamalot
Last night W came to meet me in London and we travelled to the west end to see Spamalot - the Monty Python musical. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
The Blogroll Mountain
While talking to a good friend last night on the internet, I realised how little I have been sharing recently via my blog, and how few blogs I have read (the...
Currently Reading
This week’s book is “Nostromo” by Joseph Conrad. At the time of writing I’m about 5 chapters in, and so far it’s very hard going indeed. I’m still trying to ...
Weekend To Remember
I have consumed more alcohol this weekend than I can remember getting through (and surviving) in quite some time. It must be a birthday survivability thing.
Happy Birthday To Me
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Jonathan, happy birthday to me. In continuation of my immersion into the “Apple Lifestyle”, W...
Walking The Streets
I have just spent the last three quarters of an hour walking the streets of London around the place I am working - in the spitting rain - both to stretch my ...
Empathy
While walking through Liverpool Street Station this morning, I started thinking about how I see the world, and if it differs from others. I’m don’t usually w...
On The Train
I am currently spending 4 hours each day on the train with my MacBook - reading stuff, listening to music, writing inane emails, and fiddling with the odd bi...
I Am A Strange Attractor
This morning has provided proof (if any was required) that I am indeed a “Strange Attractor”. You may be wondering what I’m talking about.
Final Fantasy Xii
While out shopping this morning (buying some goodies to cheer W up), I bought something for myself - Final Fantasy XII…
Endless Amusement
Once upon a time I wrote in the about pages of this blog that if anybody should ever write me an abusive email, I would almost certainly post the message in ...
Carpe Dium
It all started yesterday evening. During the second leg of my train journey home from Paddington to Bourne End I woke with a start. I have never fallen aslee...
On A Treadmill
It feels like I’m on some kind of treadmill at the moment. I’m working all kinds of hours, and regardless of how interesting the work might be there is a sen...
Keeping In Touch
If anybody would like to keep in touch with me during my various adventures in London (where I have no access to instant messaging, and limited access to pri...
Dinner With Aunty
Yesterday we travelled to Oxfordshire to have lunch with my Aunty Janet (we joked about me calling her this childhood name all day before setting out yesterd...
Britney On The Edge
While spending my Sunday evening catching up on the various news stories doing the rounds, I saw something quite sad. It would appear the media have finally ...
Images Of The Morning
Probably the last “photo blog” for a while (I need to get back to writing proper blog posts… posting photos seems a bit too easy - a bit shallow. I talked ab...
Life In London
Somebody asked for more photos of life in London…
Its Good To Talk
My spirits have been lifted today by something rather simple - a telephone call from W.
The Order Of Things
While out for a walk this lunchtime I made the mistake of walking past a book shop. Not one of these rubbish modern “book-sellers”; a proper, old fashioned b...
Adoption
We have now been en-route towards adopting a child for longer than several friends who became pregnant during that time, and have now had those children.
Working On A Sunday Afternoon
Following last week’s snow and falling behind with some things at work, I spent some of my Sunday afternoon trying to catch up a bit.
Bloggers Selling Out For Money
While reading some of the blogs listed on the “Great Wall of Blogs” at FuelMyBlog this morning, I kept tripping over the same money making scheme again and a...
Magnetic Fridge Poetry
A couple of years ago we were given a set of magnetic words to go on the fridge - with the theme of those words being “poetry”. Although our fridge is hidden...
Hips Lips Tits Power
I can’t help feeling that while commuting has given me the opportunity to write endless photo blog posts, they are somehow more shallow than a normal post. E...
Anna Nicole Smith
When I got in from work this evening I discovered that America’s celebrity media had chalked up another casualty.
Winter Hits Marlow
I am working from home today following the skies depositing several inches of snow across most of the Thames Valley last night - it’s still snowing hard now ...
Photos Of A Day In London
I finally remembered to take the camera with me on my commute today. Here’s the various photos - feel free to click on them to see the full size versions in ...
The Macbook Gets A Bag
Since getting the Apple MacBook a couple of weeks ago, I have been making do with carrying it around in the bag that was bought for W’s Windows laptop some t...
First Day In London
Strictly speaking, the title of this post isn’t accurate - I have been working in London for ages - but only for the odd day or week from time to time. Today...
Headache
I have had a headache ever since waking up this morning, and have no headache tablets. I have rubbed a headache stick thing across my forehead, but it hasn’t...
Apprehension
I start work in London tomorrow. It’s like starting a new job. Although I am being “seconded” to the client from my full time employer, I’ll have my own desk...
Gigabytes Of Memory
Isn’t it weird how your memory fails you sometimes.
Alone On The Internet Ocean
Sometimes the internet can feel very lonely. I spend the greater part of each day “connected” to the internet - writing e-mails, sending and receiving instan...
Homer Simpsons Car Exists
Am I the only person in the world who can see the similarity between these two cars?
What Is It About Paris Hilton
Somebody needs to help me here. I am struggling - indeed, have struggled - to understand what the fascination is with Paris Hilton. What does the media see i...
Pages From My Life
While out on the road with work, I have been filling the quiet moments by writing in a notebook. I thought it might be fun to share some excerpts from it wit...
Three Months In London
Before starting, I should probably explain the photograph. It’s the statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, London. James Barrie, the author of Peter Pan ...
All Hail Kylie
While listening to the Showgirl Homecoming concert tonight, the idea popped into my head that it might be fun to stick a different icon at the top of the blo...
Reflections On Burns Night
We went to a Burns night supper last night, held by some good friends of ours. We have been before a few years ago and upon being offered an invite, immediat...
Slowing The World Down
After several weeks running between counties of England with my work to visit faceless office buildings, the weekend has arrived once more, and half of Satur...
Poetry For Burns Night Supper
I finally decided on a poem for the Burns night supper we have been invited to this evening…
Photo Booth Rules
Okay - my good friend Lunesse just informed me of the killer feature in the Photo Booth software built into my MacBook that I didn’t even realise was there…
Early Morning Snow
After getting up just before 5:30am and wandering along the landing, I wondered what the strange glow from outside was…
Too Tired To Write
I got up at 6am, travelled to London, and walked back in the door at 7pm. Tomorrow I will leave the house at 6:25am (meaning getting up at 5:30am).
Busy Week Ahead
It’s Monday morning, and I am preparing for a busy week ahead. At least I find myself in the office this morning - unlike the last few months where I seem to...
A Letter To My Future Self
I thought of doing this while daydreaming earlier this morning (I often daydream - it’s a Pisces thing apparently) - what follows below is a letter to myself...
Thinking About Friends
While reading quite a number of blog posts this morning and issuing forth comments like confetti, I started wondering why I do it - why I write a blog.
The Macbook Arrives
I finally have a MacBook. My prediction nearly came true too about various disasters occuring to prevent it’s arrival. Last night the heating packed up in ou...
Storms Lash England
Today has been rather exciting for a change. The day would probably have been even more exciting if I had (a) not overslept, (b) not had a headache all day, ...
Googling Images
I saw this idea on Alex’s Vox blogto visit Google Images, search for your name, and post the first picture that comes up.
Dead On My Feet
The day started for me at 6am when I got up. I left the house at 7am, and did battle with the rail network for several hours. I then worked like a trojan all...
Subscribing To The Apple Lifestyle
While talking about my imminent purchase of a MacBook last night, W commented that I cannot be seen with a MacBook unless I subscribe to the “Apple Lifestyle...
Back At Work
For the first time in what feels like weeks, I am back in the office at work - writing up notes from the various site visits I have been taking part in, and ...
The Adoption Process Continues
This post is being written in response to my being mentioned on a friend’s blog today. I have often agonised over writing about our involvement in the adopti...
A Sunday Walk
After rolling out of bed at nearly 10 this morning, it was decided that we should put our coats and boots on, and venture out into the surrounding countrysid...
Weird Dream The One About God
I had a really weird dream last night. This is what happens when you read “The God Delusion” before going to sleep.
A Continued History Of Computing In The Beckett Household
In early 1992 I saw Windows 3.0 for the first time. I had asked to use the laser printer of the IT department at West Oxfordshire College to print out a poem...
A Short History Of Computers In The Beckett Household
Following a post to the “Community of Bloggers” forum, it struck me that it might be appropriate to cover my entire computer history in the form of a blog po...
Tales From The City Of London
Today finds me taking my lunchbreak in an office building just off Bishopsgate in London. They have kindly allowed me to use a workstation with internet acce...
Quiet Sunday
Next week will find me joining the daily commute to and from London, so I am trying to use today productively - relaxing.
The Slow Death Of The Windows Computers
Following the enforced replacement of the antivirus software on my computers this weekend, I have decided to withdraw life support from the PCs in the house.
Thinking Up Schemes
I am sat here at work, studying books for an exam, preparing for a site visit next week (I am returning to London), and quietly trying to figure out how to a...
Build A Community Of Bloggers
I have been thinking. About community stuff.
This Life Ends
I feel a bit sad tonight - “This Life” sort of officially came to an end.
Lunchtime Diversion Celebrity Blogs
While taking a break from studying this lunchtime, I headed over to del.icio.us, and did a search for “celebrity blog” to see what came up (del.icio.us is a ...
2006
Happy New Year
Today’s post to the soon to be year-old blog known as “Life and Times” marks the end of 2006, and the beginning of 2007. We have been staying with my parents...
Talland
We arrived in Talland at about 5pm last night, after a day spent on the road battling driving rain and howling winds. It was great to finally arrive, sit in ...
Heading West
We’ll be leaving the house mid-morning tomorrow, firstly to Heathrow to pick up family from San Francisco, and then heading west across southern England to m...
Virgil Brigman Back On The Air
Half way through reading a blog yesterday afternoon, a small red cross appeared in the Windows system tray (yes, I use a desktop computer with Microsoft Wind...
Lego Star Wars Takes Over
Has anybody seen W? I used to be married to this lady who knitted things, and wrote in her knitting blog. Now I live with this person who enthusiastically re...
Playing Thud
For Christmas this year I received the board game “Thud” from W’s parents. I played W last night (and got badly defeated), but still enjoyed it immensely. It...
Christmas Day Ends
As Christmas’s go, this one was pretty good (apart from one thing that I will get to in a minute).
Christmas Hits The Beckett Household
We invited friends and neighbors round last night for drinks and mince pies, and it finally feels like Christmas has arrived.
Last Day Of Work Before Christmas
Today is the last day of work before Christmas. The office has reduced down to a skeleton staff, of which I am one.
Review Of The Year
The idea to do this “review of the year” came from W, who has done a similar thing.
Inventing Reindeer Buckets
While having a rather silly conversation this morning about the belief children have in “Father Christmas”, I remembered something I invented when I was youn...
Very Cold Indeed
(Photo is courtesy of lizvang on Flickr - I forgot the camera again)
Monsier Mange Tout
I hereby crown my brother with the title “Monsier Mange Tout” (Mr. Eat Everything).
Time Magazine Names You Person Of The Year
It’s very rare that I run a story across both the PluggedOut blog and here at LifeAndTimes, but I felt today was one of those rare times…
Christmas Decorations
Today was spent on a madcap dash into town for presents, to the supermarket for christmas meal ingredients, and to the garden center for a Christmas Tree and...
The Singer Songwriter
While writing a comment on Lauren’s blog last night, I thought about an artist I have not listened to for a long time - Billy Joel.
Home Alone
Today finds me at home, with coffee, sandwiches, a big thick jumper (sweater for those of you in the US), and the laptop keeping me warm. The cat is keeping ...
Aguilera Rules With Back To Basics
While off work today I decided I needed some good tunes to accompany my surfing and free-wheeling across the world-wide-web. I chose “Back To Basics”, the ne...
Homeless
I had to inform my brother that he wouldn’t be able to stay with us much past Christmas today. The adoption process is going to pick up, and we need to start...
Choosing Underwear
I am busy perusing the Figleaves website, trying to pick something for my better half for Christmas. Why is it so difficult?
Twittering Against Mediocrity
I have heard several quotes over the years warning against the dangers of mediocrity. How best to battle the slide of this blog over the past several days to...
No Seriously I Have No Friends
I have one friend on Twitter. This is embarrassing. Please help me solve this problem…
Good Night And Good Luck
We watched the movie “Good Night and Good Luck” last night.
The Britney Results Are In
You are not going to believe this - you may recall that a couple of days ago I posted on “Life and Times” a spurious post about a certain Mrs Spears, with th...
Sunday With Char And Jake
We just spent Sunday afternoon and evening with my cousin Charlotte, and her boyfriend Jake…
Memories Of London
Following a week spent commuting in and out of London - mostly during the hours of darkness - I thought it might be interesting to transcribe some of the not...
Dead Hand
I disovered just how quickly you can wake up if you are in a state of panic this morning. Here’s what happened (a transcript of thoughts, if you will…)
Britney Spears Crotch Shots
Forgive the title. This post is an experiment. I am going to let this run for a few days, then post the Google Analytics results of how many people came to r...
Six Million Dollar Man
Sorry for the absence of a “real” post this evening, but I just came across this on YouTube, and had to share it;
Tired
Another day, another journey into the depths of London’s East End. A little further through Anna Karenina, and a little less energy left in the tank.
Anna Karenina
While commuting back and forth from London this week I have been reading “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy, and thought it might be interesting for some of the ...
Back To The City
The alarm crackled into life at 5:55 this morning, and reminded me that I will be working in London for the week. After trying to stumble around the bedroom ...
The Santa Fun Run
This morning Glenn, W’s Mum, Myself and W took part in the second “Santa’s Fun Run” in Marlow.
Ghost In The Shell
While out Christmas shopping yesterday, I picked up a couple of things for myself - one of which was the first part of “Ghost in the Shell” on DVD. I’m tryin...
Christmas Shopping
I took my Moleskine Notebook out Christmas Shopping today. I am perhaps a little worried that I am referring to it as you might a character in a story, but p...
November Ends
I have completed “National Blog Posting Month” (NaBloPoMo) successfully. For those who have no idea what on earth I am talking about, it was a challenge to w...
Out Of Control
It seems like so long since I last wrote what I might regard as a “proper” post. Everyday happenings don’t seem to qualify. “I did this, then I did that” doe...
Born In The Wrong Era
Is this a myth perpetuated by artwork, or did all women look like the one on the front of this book in the 1950s and 60s ?
I Take It All Back Britney
I sit down, fire up Mozilla Thunderbird to check my email, then over to Google Reader to catch up on news and blogs, and…
Seduction By Nintendo
I should have known it would happen. I can still remember the afternoon I arrived home with the little blue box from Nintendo, wired it up to the television ...
One Word Answers
While making the daily rounds, commenting on my friends blogs I came across a challenge too good to pass up from Sarcomical (photo above taken from her wonde...
Through Caverns Measureless To Man
I woke this morning with a piece of poetry in my head.
Love The Beatles
While out shopping, quite apart from finally aquiring a Moleskine notebook, I spied the new Beatles album “Love”…
I Have No Underwear On
Seriously. I got up this morning and discovered that all my underwear was in the dirty washing. I am consequently sat here in my pyjama bottoms. The washing ...
Answering The Questions
Firstly, I would like to extend a huge thankyou to those who commented on my previous request for questions. I shall endeavour to answer them in as interesti...
Nearly Last
The one we got wrong…We just got back from the pub. We performed hilariously badly. 14 out of 30.
Inviting Questions
Here’s an idea. I am inviting you to ask me up to 4 questions each in the comments, and this evening I will answer the first 20 questions.
Pub Quiz Beckons
We’re off to take part in the weekly pub quiz at the Marlow Donkey later. I will write a more complete blog post upon my return - which will almost certainly...
This Isnt Lonely This Is Wallowing With Style
I sit down, take a sip from my cup of tea, and light bathes my face. Fingers dance across keys. Within the machine virtual cogs turn, pipes open, and informa...
Getting Late
I just realised what the time was, and NaBloPoMo popped into my head. It has a habit of doing that. I apologise in advance for a disjointed and badly written...
How We Got Here
I thought it might be about time I started to tell the story of why we are adopting children.
Home Once More
We have arrived home this evening after a week spent in Lincolnshire with my brother and his family. It took on my role as “children’s entertainer” for my ne...
Into The Unknown
Today is the final day of the adoption preparation group, and immediately following it we are travelling to the north of England to visit my brother for the ...
Another Place
The morning started with a stealthy departure from the house at 6:55 - the reason for said stealth being the avoidance of waking W. We are trying to enjoy “n...
A Short Post
Today finds me writing a somewhat short post. We have spent all day sat in a classroom confronting our preconceived ideas, thoughts and fears about maintaini...
Unhinged
Imagine this week started on a gentle downhill trend towards hell, fire, damnation, fury and madness. Today has seen a steady increase in incline throughout ...
Off The Rails
Today started fine. I got up, had a shower, got dressed, made some lunch, packed my bag, and went to work.
A Video Blogging Experiment
After reading The 13th Apostle this morning, I looked at the webcam over on the corner of the desk, and wondered if I could figure out how to record somethin...
Dungeons And Dragons
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 very nearl...
Violated
My Google Mail account got hacked last night. I’m not so much worried about loss of personally sensitive information (there wasn’t anything too terrible in m...
Seduced By Moleskine
I have a secret.
Feeling Sorry For Britney Spears
When I got up this morning and wandered into the lounge with my scary hair and cup of tea, the first international news greeting me from the BBC was not the ...
Thou Shalt Not Criticise Pop Idol Winners
Wow - what a response… after yesterday’s post where I made comments in passing about Will Young and Kelly Clarkson, I was deluged with emails and comments.
In The Defence Of Great Music
After kicking up something of a storm by criticizing the current crop of manufactured “musicians”, (and yes, the quotes are deliberate), I thought it only ri...
Morning Fog In Marlow
It would appear that Winter is finally upon us…
Finding Time
It’s just gone 9pm and I have my first chance to sit and record the adventures of the day. With a little luck the act of writing will act as a catharsis and ...
Marlow Half Marathon
Today saw the running of the Marlow Half Marathon, which W’s mum took part in. This saw me up and about at an unusually early time on a Sunday morning in pre...
This Is A Journey Into Sound
I just logged into emusic and discovered I have 118 credits in the bank - that’s 118 tracks of music I can download for free (except of course it’s not free,...
Dogs Have Owners Cats Have Staff
Have you ever decided to take a day out from your normal life? I did today, and I have decided I need to do it more often.
Last Day Of The Adventure
Today marks my last day in the metropolis before returning back to the relative quiet of Marlow. Travelling back and forth, and spending each day among the m...
Returning To London
Today marked the second day of three spent in London - and this time I remembered the camera!
Three Days In London
For the next three days I will be commuting into central London to work on-site on a client project. This will mean getting up at 5am, and getting home at 8p...
Not Meeting Old Friends
Today was the first day of three commuting into London to work on-site on a client project. That might not seem like such a big deal at first glance, but whe...
Where I Work
On the way to work this morning I took my camera, and stitched several photos together. Here’s the view of the estate (I have no idea if this will work or no...
Getting Back On The Bike
After a week spent twiddling my thumbs, and “evaluating” various pieces of software at work, I had to “get back on the bike” today - and start crunching out ...
Getting Fatter By The Second
After a particularly shitty day at work, after dinner I went to the local garage and bought a big bag or rubbish. I can now announce that I just ate a 250 gr...
Do Soft Toys Have Feelings Too
This is going to sound like a very, very strange post to come from a man.
Clocks Go Back
The clocks went back this morning - we are finally back on GMT. We get an hour extra in bed, and the mornings are light once again.
Evil Empire Attacks Study
In events occurring entirely within Jonathan’s head this morning, the Empire launched an assault on the computer desk. They met staunch resistance from a lon...
Tense Nervous Headache
I have a headache that has been steadily growing throughout the day. Before you tell me to go find the paracetamol, I don’t think we have any. I have already...
Fruit Bowl
This is what you get when I am off work, not feeling great, and bored. I know I should be eating this stuff - I just can’t face it at the moment.
Blogging Blogging Blogging Cough Cough
I am off work today, having finally caught the lurgi that W has been suffering with for the last week. I’m not coughing as much as her, but that might have s...
Wireless N64
On Sunday we won an auction on E-Bay for a Nintendo 64. It was a thrilling battle against unknown assailants to secure a piece of 1990s video gaming history ...
Wiped Out
Following yet another evening of running ragged in the pursuit of a house that doesn’t resemble a rubbish tip quite so closely, and lifting the spirits of a ...
Hungry
Where the hell is the sandwich man? I am sat here in the office, it’s lunchtime, and I am waiting for the arrival of the guy who sells sandwiches in the car ...
Venturing Out
This evening I have been venturing out on the the “internet at large”. You probably have visions now of me sneaking along the side of the internet high stree...
Stuck In A Rut
My life at the moment seems to be a never ending series of “things to do”. I need to make some kind of change before I go mad. Perhaps getting out of the hou...
Simplification
After several days being dissatisfied with the look and feel of my blog, I have decided that “simple is best”. It’s about the words, after all - not how pret...
Nablopomo Beckons
While scouting interesting blogs to read earlier this evening, I came across “NaBloPoMo” - National Blog Posting Month.
Thinking Of Friends
After arriving at work this morning, I discovered that one of our friends (the husband of a colleague) collapsed at home yesterday evening and is in hospital...
More News
I have more news on the friend who collapsed yesterday - he is conscious, but still in hospital. The news is third hand so may well be wrong in many ways. I’...
Rainy Sunday In Maidenhead
After getting up late this morning and sitting in my robe for the best part of an hour, I looked out at the constant rain outside and a retail therapy sessio...
This Is Where It Happens
I thought it might be fun to take a picture of the desk at home in the study… this is where all the geekiness eminates from.
Everything Changes
Some of the people that read my blog were surprised earlier this week by my decision to start winding down the “development” area of the website. There were ...
Trying To De Stress
For the first time this week, I worked from the normal offices - meaning a chance to rescue at least a couple of hours of sleep. Judging by the difficulty I ...
The Day From Hell
My body woke me at half hourly intervals between 3 and 6am this morning. So much for the idea of a finely tuned body clock.
On The Road
While the title of this post may be “On The Road”, I can assure you that it’s content bears no relation to the Jack Kerouak book. If a stormtrooper were stoo...
More Than Half A Million Now Dead In Iraq
I was going to write a blog entry about feeling awful today (I still have the cold), but events in the news have given me an excuse to write an opinionated b...
Making The Girls Feel Better
I came across these before and after photos of a girl that appeared in FHM recently on FWDitOn, and thought I should share them to make all the women out the...
New And Interesting Insult
I was just reading the comments to a post on Digg, and came across a new insult to hurl at people…
Befuddled
I started to feel a little better this afternoon, so dragged the work laptop from my bag, set it down on the desk, and tried to kickstart my head.
Down
I have been sat here for a while, trying to think of something to write about. I feel like I need to write about something, and keep the blog going in at lea...
Photo From Turkey
We finally got W’s films developed of our trip to Turkey.
Another Day In The Life
While running around doing ten things at once since getting in from work this evening I thought it might be worth recording “just another day in my life” for...
Physics Breakthrough Raises Questions
I have just been reading about the physics breakthrough that has enabled scientists to move several billion atoms from one point to another in space (yes, th...
Amanda Across America
I was watching one of my favourite video “netcasts” earlier - Amanda Across America, and just had to share today’s post… click on the image to view it :
Pressure Eases
I had been contemplating the idea of bringing my laptop home from work throughout the evenings this week and doing unpaid overtime to (hopefully) deliver the...
Thoughts On A Saturday Night
This evening W’s brother came over and we went out for dinner together in town (as I write this, we are home, it’s nearly midnight, and we’ve hit the columbi...
Photos Lots Of Them
I uploaded a raft of photographs to Flickr last night. This followed the purchase of a “Pro” account. I have this amazing digital camera that I rarely use, s...
Crashing Down
I just played Chess on the internet for the first time in ages, and got resoundingly thrashed twice in a row. It may have had something to do with the glass ...
Wine And Music
This evening finds me re-discovering free time, wine, and most importantly music. I haven’t done this in ages - there is a value to be had from relaxing in a...
Unexpected Growth
Over the last few weeks I have been busy re-styling the PluggedOut website, and have started writing regular posts over there on the thing that interests me ...
Organising My Life
For the past couple of days I have been looking at various means of organising my life a little better. I tend to forget where I should be or what I should b...
Discovered
I forgot to say… while on holiday in Turkey we went out for dinner one evening in nearby Fethiye, and while eating the main course, our host for the evening ...
Chess World Championships
Yes, I know… this post is a little “out of the ordinary” even for me. I love playing chess though, so I’m excusing myself from any finger pointing for quite ...
Bookmarks And Feeds
For the first time since last weekend I have what appears to be a Sunday to myself. I’m probably going to fill it with all manner of activities that are on t...
Slow Saturday
Today finds me having not written anything in my blog for a week, and wondering what to write. It’s been a long time since I have written so few posts, and I...
Makover For Pluggedout
I have spent most of this evening working on a makeover for the PluggedOut website. The general idea has been to make it more simple to navigate (everything ...
Fascinated Yet Horrified
We just witnessed a sparrow hawk rip a dove to shreds in our back garden…
Turkey
7 days ago we got on a plane at London Heathrow, switched our mobile phones off, and dissappeared. Vanished.
Returning To Civilisation
After a week where we seemingly dissappeared off the face of the earth, we are back home and very, very tired.
Holiday Reading Decided
By the time you read this, I will most likely either be on an aircraft somewhere over europe, or sat on a balcony in the middle of knowhere in deepest Turkey...
Seclusion
The photograph above is from the balcony of the house we will be staying at in Turkey for the next week. We fly out from London Heathrow tomorrow afternoon f...
Choosing Holiday Books
We are finally escaping from our life tomorrow, and spending a week holed up in a cabin in the Turkish mountains (click here for a sneaky peek). This of cour...
Waiting For Ice Cream
I have just sat here for ten minutes desperately trying to think of something to write about. I seem to have hit something of a dry spell. Perhaps it has to ...
Wonderful Sunday
Today was the kind that you remember with a smile.
A Busy Saturday
It feels rather strange - entering “normal” life once more after several months working weekends.
Its Official I Have The Lurgi
While stood in the bathroom brushing my teeth this morning, I noticed red weilds around my neck and thought “hmmm… that’s not right”.
In The Absence Of A Subject
In the absence of anything to write about at present, I thought a photograph from our various adventures might be in order.
Describing The Problem
Ideas appear within my mind at the most unpredictable moments, and I am left wondering what the triggers are. This evening while cycling home from work an an...
Down
Where do we find solace from the continual weight of the world surrounding us. Deadlines. Expectations. Schedules. Where does it all end ?
Late Night Thoughts
Following week upon week, working huge numbers of hours on an incredibly complex project at work, you would think a night off would be greeted with open arms...
1970S Influences
After watching the movie “Almost Famous” the other night (the same movie that caused an attack of introspection, and this blog entry), I have found myself di...
Unsettled
After an evening trying to escape from the reaper that my work has become, I find myself watching a movie about people running from a normal existence - look...
Yet Another Blog
While busy banging my head against a brick wall this morning in a manner only fellow software developers will identify with, one of my colleagues sent me an ...
Running In Circles
When I came home tonight I planned on getting a big chunk of work done. Somehow inbetween getting home from work, and the clock striking midnight I have ache...
Beaverton Oregon Has A Secret
In a world filled with people working their nine to five jobs like orwellian automatons, we all sometimes wish that we had pursued a dream, an interest or a ...
Wendys Woolies
My better half finally has her own blog on the internet - at present it is hosted at PluggedOut, but it will be getting it’s own domain name in the near futu...
After The Deluge
The whole complexion of the weekend changed with a rumble, a flicker of light and an ear-splitting crash yesterday afternoon. The dark clouds that have been ...
Where The Time Goes
With the absence of anything significant going on in what I laughably call “my life” this weekend, I find myself working once again.
That Friday Feeling
I woke with a start this morning, and heard the garbage collection truck pass the end of our drive - the end of our drive that had no bin on the end of it be...
The End Of Summer
It’s raining. The sky is grey, it’s colder than it’s been in days, and it really feels like summer is coming to an end today.
Important People In My Life
I actually seem to have regained my uber-software-developer mojo today. The keys are clicking. Code seems to be dripping from my fingers.
Returning To The Fuckwad Theory
I spent some time tonight exploring MySpace, and while browsing the forums discovered that nothing has really changed in people’s behaviour on the internet s...
Adrift
Before launching into this post, it’s worth pointing out that I have finally succummed to the monster that is MySpace - mainly because I have several “real” ...
A Different Perspective
I was talking to somebody recently about drawing, and they made an observation about me. It stuck in my mind because it’s not the first time I’ve heard it sa...
One Hell Of A Weekend
If ever proof was needed of the power of the internet to bring people together, this weekend was it.
Moving Projects To Sourceforge
I have decided - somewhat reluctantly - to move my development projects (PluggedOut Blog and PluggedOut CMS) to SourceForge.
Experimenting With Webcams
I’m experimenting with a little utility that lets me upload webcam images to the webspace. The image below should update every so often (I can either set a t...
You Might Be Interested In
If you are interested in retro video games, you might be interested in an article I just wrote on NewsVine about “Asteroids” - the game made by Atari in 1979…
Working On A Saturday
It’s saturday morning, and I find myself firing the computer up to carry on with my work.
Front Page On Newsvine
I don’t believe it. I wrote a story on Newsvine and it hit the front page…
A Night Off
My cousin arrived at our house last night to stay for a couple of days, so I had a night off from the endless hours of overtime I’ve been doing recently. She...
Monday Monday
It’s Monday morning, and I’ve just discovered I am the only one in my office today (there are normally three of us). What fun.
Media Player Rules
I never thought I would end up saying this, but the latest version of Microsoft’s “Windows Media Player” (currently in beta) really does rule.
Books Rule
Over the last few months I have found myself with very little time outside of work to persue my own interests, and have been watching television less than ev...
Is It Only Wednesday
It’s Wednesday morning, and I feel like it’s the end of the week already. So far I have logged over 24 hours work for the week so far. That’s in two days. If...
Very Very Tired
I’m not really sure if I’m coming or going any more.
Tagged With A Life Questionairre
One of my friends on the internet “tagged” me with a set of questions, and I sheepishly agreed to reply to them. Enjoy…
Tekken 5 Arrives
Just before leaving the house this morning the postman came by, and delivered a jiffy bag. I stood in the hallway clutching it like a small child, almost too...
Holy Storage Batman
I think this might have to be a geeky post.
The News Finally Breaks
I logged into Rojo this lunchtime to catch up with the various blogs I regularly read, and came across a news story that I have been expecting to see for som...
The Slog Continues
This is going to sound mad… it is Tuesday evening, and I am already crossing the 24 hours of work mark for the week so far. The subject of study this evening...
Melancholy
After discovering that we had very little in the cupboards to make a meal out of this evening, I jumped on my bike and cycled into town in search of food and...
Finally A Graphics Tablet
While wandering around John Lewis yesterday (in the process losing half a day of programming time), I was walking past the electrical department and saw the ...
Superman Returns In Style
We just got in from a visit to the cinema to see “Superman Returns”. In many ways this evening was all about being a child again. W picked me up from work, w...
More And More Hours
It’s starting to feel like my life has dissappeared, and been replaced by endless hours of work. Today I crossed through 40 hours for the week so far - and w...
The Mind Of An 80 Year Old
I recently bought W “Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training” for her Nintendo DS. I had a go on it, and am regretting it now.
Trying Harder
I have had what feels like the first chance in weeks to catch up with some of my friends blogs this afternoon - and almost feel like an outsider, which is we...
Soul Calibur 3
After a trip late yesterday afternoon to our local Blockbusters, I raided the bargain bin of second-hand games, and came away with Soul Calibur 3.
Day Off
I woke up this morning at 10am and decided - on the basis of me never waking up that late - that it was time I had a day off.
The Remains Of The Day
It’s late afternoon on Saturday, and I am finally having some weekend. I’ve hit a bump in the programming I am doing for work, and can’t be bothered to inves...
Getting Tired
It’s Thursday morning, and so far this week I have logged over 35 hours work. At this rate, I’m going to hit something like 60 hours at some point over the w...
Work Takes Over My Life
Unfortunately blog posts may be very scarce on the ground over the next few weeks - I am working on a project at work that has had all overtime approved in o...
Back On Dry Land
We are finally back on dry land after our adventure on the high seas.
Rossi Starts Whining
It came as no surprise that following Rossi’s 10th place in Assen, he is whining about the MotoGP races being so close together. If he had been in the lead o...
Holiday Back On Track
This morning myself and W went for a walk around Polruan - both to get away from everybody, and to salvage at least something from the holiday.
Better News But Annoyed
Okay - Jim survived and is okay - he’s still in hospital while they figure out why his heart stopped, but he’s sat up, is talking to people and is otherwise ...
Holiday Starts Badly
We were supposed to have been on the boat by now, sailing out of Plymouth Sound. Instead we are sat at home waiting for my parents to return from Dereford Ho...
Tired And Unsettled
I have been working on a project for work all weekend (complex programming geekery), and am finding it difficult to get it out of my head.
1Am And Tired
It’s 01:00 on Saturday morning, and I have been programming all night. I am relatively pleased though - I now have a complete database wrapper class that I c...
Working Late
It’s now 22:06 and I find myself finishing up on some work that I brought home with me. Maybe time for some television, some quality time with my other half,...
Learning Something New
I am on a course for the first few days this week (or “taking a class” as the American’s among you might better understand).
Celebrity Weakest Link
We have just been watching “Celebrity Weakest Link” on the television, and laughing our socks off at the lack of knowledge they seem to have.
Nintendo Entertainment System
When I got home from work last night there was a parcel at the back door, and even though it had my name on it, I thought W must have bought something on E-B...
Discovering Music
I have been listening to various internet music feeds tonight, and stumbled across a goldmine.
Did A Brainbench Test
After my apparent “success” with the IQ test the other day, I sat down late last night and did a free exam on the Brain Bench website.
Very Busy Indeed
I’m just taking the chance (while waiting for some software to install) to write a few words in my blog.
Just Took An Iq Test
I just took an IQ test at the Tickle website, and have no idea what the results mean. Apparently unless you pay, they give you an abridged version of the sco...
The Good Girl
Last weekend I bought the movie “The Good Girl” from the bargain bin of the local Blockbuster, thinking it would be a good no-brain-required, typical “Jennif...
King Of The Idiots
Nobody will be interested in this post apart from the geeks among you. Actually, it’s a bit of a misnomer addressing an “audience” to this blog - as far as I...
Detached
For some reason for the last few days I have felt detached from my work, and (being truthful) life in general. I don’t really know why either.
Unexpected Friendship
After the low ebb that the weekend started on, my faith in life, the universe and everything in general has been somewhat restored.
The Art Of Vallejo
Following on last night from the post of a piece of artwork by Sorayama, here is a painting by Boris Vallejo.
The Art Of Sorayama
After talking to a new friend on messenger earlier, I realised that I know quite a bit about various artists and their work, and I never impart this knowledg...
Bored And Lonesome
Do you ever have days when you just run out of cheer and optimism? I seem to be having one today.
Schumacher Guilty Of Cheating Again
During qualifying for the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix today, during the closing minutes of qualifying Michael Schumacher stalled his car on the track, ruin...
Morning In London
I had to visit a client in London this morning to rescue them - their web database server had gone down, and I was chosen to don the cape and fly in - well, ...
Finland Rock
I forgot to mention that last weekend I sat and watched the Eurovision Song Contest, and happily voted for the runaway winner - Lordi, from Finland…
Stop The World
(more about the gratuitous Serenity picture further on…)
Waddesdon Manor
On Saturday we went out with some friends to visit “a National Trust place”. We didn’t really decide where until we arrived at their house.
Way Behind
I know - I’m way behind with my blog.
Home Alone
Did I write a blog yesterday? I don’t recall…
Saturday Morning
I’ve been up since 7:30 this morning, and find myself in the unusual position of having the whole of the weekend stretched out before me with nothing planned...
Day Off
I have had the day off work today - although somehow it feels as if the hours have ebbed away and nothing is left of it. I have achieved a few things though ...
Pluggedout Receives Funding
I was about to write something along the lines of “readers of my blog may not be aware that I also run a website where I give away and support a number of op...
Completing The Marlow 5
I finished the Marlow 5 this morning - amazing considering that I thought about pulling out last weekend. I had only gone out on about 5 training runs in tot...
Working In The Garden
We woke at about 8 this morning and looked out across a sun filled garden. A garden who’s grass needed cutting, and with numerous jobs to be done.
News Aggregation Services
I have been playing with Rojo this morning - and have come to to conclusion that it’s one of the best RSS aggregators I have ever seen.
A Blog Journey
So we set out on another “Blog Journey”. If you have no idea what I’m about to do, a little explanation is probably in order…
The Marathon Abates
After finishing work at 11:30pm last night, and then going in early today, myself and a colleague worked straight through the day (eating at our desks) and f...
Working Throught The Night
I’m working through the night tonight to “try” and get ahead with a work project.
Tired
I woke up this morning to the gentle tones of our house telephone running out of battery charge - “beep….. beep….. beep”, followed by W leaning over and putt...
Surviving The Fun Run
I took part in a 4.5 mile “fun run” in Oxfordshire this morning. I would like to say I did well, but that would be a bare faced lie.
Nintendo Wii
No - the title of this post is not a typo. Nintendo have released the name of their new baby that will compete with the might of the X-Box 360, and the Plays...
A Strange Week
In the absense of regular blog posts recently perhaps a quick review of the week is in order.
Ie7 Good But Flawed
You may not know that Microsoft released beta 2 of Internet Explorer 7 last month. I’ve been trying it out and was initially impressed - however I’ve just ha...
The Marlow 5 Looms
The weekend after next I am going to run in our local running race - the “Marlow 5”. I say “run” in something of a creative sense. I don’t think you can desc...
5 More Miles
After getting in from work this evening I went for a run and managed to churn out 5 miles.
Fitter But Knackered
On Thursday night one of my friends gave me a call and asked if I wanted to go out running on Saturday morning. While at work yesterday, I started to wonder ...
Belated Birthday Present
As a belated birthday present (because the pyjamas I bought her were the wrong size, and you can’t get them in her size), I bought W her replacement present ...
Thinking Of Cat Names
One of my friends on the internet is about to become the proud owner of two kittens. I say “owner” in the loose sense, because as any cat “owner” knows, cats...
Time To Speak Out
I’ve just been watching a documentary about the fur trade, and thought it might be time to speak out about some of the things I believe in. A lot of the peop...
Slogging Away
I feel like I’m shackled to a treadmill at the moment - with no obvious way of getting off.
War Of The Ring
Last year W bought be the “War of the Ring” board game, based on the “Lord of the Rings” books by J.
Easter Monday Morning
It’s just gone 9 on Easter Monday morning - I’ve filled the dishwasher up and am sat here in my housecoat with crazy hair and a cup of tea. I really need to ...
Playing Chess On The Internet
I thought it was about time I wrote about RedHotPawn - probably the one website I make a point of visiting every day. Perhaps obviously, it’s a Chess website...
Annoyed With Blogger
Okay. I’ve started using my own blog script again - mainly out of frustration with Blogger, who’s servers refuse to publish my blog at the moment.
Gardening On Good Friday
It’s “Good Friday” in the UK today. We’re off work, and have been working on the garden. W is still out there, digging the far end over.
Now Yahoo Are At It
When I arrived at work this morning, I was browsing the “latest news” on Yahoo, and came across the story about Tom Cruise’s baby being born… the second para...
Sadly Lacking
This blog has been sadly lacking “interesting” entries over the last week or so. There are a few reasons for it, but the main one is that I have a very simpl...
Copper Reminds Of The Simple Things
I just wanted to take the opportunity to direct you over the wonderful online comic strip that is “Copper”…
Weekend Away
This weekend we went to visit some friends who live down in the southwest of England - a little village called Chappel Knapp. If I was going to paint a word ...
Rojo
I’ve been playing with a new(ish) website called “Rojo” tonight. It’s a news aggregation service - they basically pull together RSS feeds from multiple sourc...
Old News
While helping a couple of people on the internet last night, I was watching television out of the corner of me eye - and a news story made me look up.
Working On The Blog Script
Over the last few days I have been working on my blogging script, and finally released an update for it. It’s now up to version 1.9.9d (I wish I had kept som...
Working On The Blog Script
Those of you who have not been reading my blog for very long (or perhaps this is the first time you’ve seen my blog) will have no idea that I have written a ...
Wandering Round In Circles
I have been trying to figure out how to access Microsoft Sharepoint from an external application today, and have so far found the documentation very thin on ...
Jean Michel Jarre
I’ve been sat here programming all night, and thought I would take a bit of a break and tell you what I’m listening to.
Surviving
I survived the day (just). After working flat out throughout the day, I finished my work at 5:26 - with 4 minutes to spare inside my normal working day. Hope...
And For My Next Trick
I have just spent the morning digging myself out of a development hole.
The Code Factory
I feel like some kind of computer code factory at the moment. I spent all day at work churning out C# programming, and since I got in have been churning out ...
Feeling Low
It really shouldn’t have come as a surprise that I didn’t feel very well when I got up this morning - W was off work for the first half of last week, and I’v...
Analysing My Photography Skills
I just did a meme over at http://www.tickle.com [http://www.tickle.com/] and answered the question “What do your Photos Say About You?”
Old Friends Crossing Paths
I was browsing around on the internet a couple of days ago and came across a webpage where somebody mentioned that a certain person was their momand I saw th...
Oooh Shiny
Unless you are completely blind, or are reading this blog entry via RSS, you will notice that I have changed the template. It’s still a similar layout to bef...
France Displays Its Idiocy
I have just been reading about the French politicians voting to approve a bill forcing the likes of Apple, Sony, and Microsoft to open their digital media fo...
The Blog Journey
While bored last night I came up with a somewhat novel idea for a meme - the “Blog Journey”. The idea being to choose a random blog, and follow the path thro...
Horse Riding
I’ve just been reading a blog entry written by my aunt, and it brought back quite a few memories.
Quiet Sundays Rule
I got up at 6:30am this morning to watch the Formula One race in Malaysia. What a complete and utter waste of time that was.
Apathy
Today has been a quiet day. I’m sat here in the lounge at home, wondering what to do with myself. As much as I like having “quiet days”, I always find myself...
All Kneel Before Erin Grey
You’re probably asking yourself “who the hell is Erin Grey?”. She came to mind while reading a great blog post about Knight Rider by Sarcomical (a fantastic ...
A Blog Journey
I just had a rather wonderful idea for a blogging activity when you’re bored. I’m going to call it a “Blog Journey”. Here’s how it works - you go to a random...
Thank Its Friday
I’m just having a break from my work for a few minutes, so thought I would spend some time posting an entry to my somewhat neglected (of late) blog.
First Look At Microsoft Windows Vista
I’ve just been looking at Windows Vista with a colleague. He installed it on a virtual machine to play with (virtual machines allow you to create “pretend” c...
Tired
I’m not sure why, but I got in from this work and just have no energy. Perhaps it’s the result of a late night last night.
Returning From A Week Away
Myself and W have just got back from spending a week in Dorset on the south coast of England, taking a much needed break from the world in general.
First Photos From Our Trip
We’re back! We arrived home a few hours ago, and I’ve just got around to making a start with sorting the photos out.
Happy Birthday To Me
On Saturday 3rd March 1973, June Beckett gave birth to her second son. He remained nameless for several weeks while the hospital did every check possible on ...
Its Nearly My Birthday
I am going to be 33 years old tomorrow. I am officially becoming a grumpy old man, one year at a time.
Taking The Time
I’m sat here wondering about time - five minutes to be more precise. I’ve never really thought too deeply about how I spend my time each day before - I tend ...
Cold House
Our heating has packed up. Again.
Walk The Line
We just got back from watching the movie “Walk the Line”. We decided to see it at the last moment when we arrived at the cinema - we had been thinking of goi...
Is It Thursday Already
I can’t believe it’s Thursday. This week is dissappearing faster than a fast thing that dissappears quickly.
Starting A Readers Group
You heard it here first.
Unplanned
This weekend didn’t happen how I thought it was going to happen at all.
Buying Books
For the past several years I have read an awful lot of non-fiction - books about chess, science, astronomy, mathematics… you name it. I’ve continually told p...
The Weekend
It’s Saturday morning, I’ve been up since 8am, and I feel great - which is surprising as I was off work yesterday feeling very rough indeed.
Uk Bans Smoking In Public Places
Yesterday the British government voted to ban smoking in all public places, with the ban coming into force in 18 months time (summer 2007). This is absolutel...
Its About Time Too
Yes, yes, I know - I haven’t written anything in here for a few days and you’re wondering where I’ve dissappeared off to. I’ve not been keeping up with the b...
Choose A Quiet Sunday
For the first time in living memory, I am choosing to stay at home today rather than trudge off across the country to visit W’s family (or go on some other e...
Chilling On A Saturday
It’s been a great Saturday so far. It’s cold outside, but not unpleasantly so. A crunchy cold.
113960916143323903
Before I start, I just want to say thankyou to all the people who left messages about the IVF stuff this week.
Listening To Mozart
I’m sat here in our lounge on my own, tapping away at the laptop, and I have a Mozart CD in the player.
Brain Dump
It seems like days since I last posted a “proper” entry into my blog, so here is one. I’m not sure quite what I’m going to write about at this point, so we’l...
How Powerful Is Word Of Mouth
I’m sat here wondering how powerful “Word of Mouth” might be when starting a new website.
Soccer Is The Most Pathetic Game In The World
Yes, you heard right. I am English, and I think Soccer is the most pathetic game in the world - or at least the people who play it at the top level are the m...
Something New
For the last few evenings I have been working on a new website - a public workshop for writers of all abilities to put their writing out there, and to give a...
Absolutely Knackered
I think I might be experiencing what some people call “burnout”.
Problems Concentrating
I’m back in the office this morning and having real problems concentrating.
Sunday Morning
Do you ever feel guilty about being lazy? It’s now just gone 12:00 on Sunday, and all I have managed to do so far is get out of bed at about 10, make a cup o...
The Story That Never Was
Late last year I planned to take part in “Nanowrimo” - the annual internet novel writing event. Unfortunately circumstances got in the way and my attempt was...
More News From The Lab
More IVF news
Looking Good
Just a quick update (don’t have much time at the moment)… we got the lab results back from the Lister Hospital in London this morning - fantastic news - they...
Early Morning In London
We were up at 5am this morning, made our way to Maidenhead, and caught the 6:05 train to London for the first part of the IVF cycle. It seems strange referri...
The Comic Strip Will Happen
I have just decided that a comic strip will happen.
How Cold
It’s nearly 9:20 as I write this, and I’m just starting to warm up a bit. When I got my bike out of the shed this morning I thought it was cold outside, but ...
Playing With The Camera
Okay… I’ve been playing with the new camera (at last)
Drawing Comic Strips
I’m sat here this evening thinking about drawing an online comic. For the last hour or so I’ve been looking around on the web at various online comic strips....
Discovering Jackson Browne
I was busy downloading some music yesterday evening that a friend recommended (Brad Paisley and Tim McGraw if you’re interested), and discovered who Jackson ...
Saturday Morning
Where to start? The photo I guess… it was taken a couple of weeks ago in Higginson park - about 15 minutes walk from our house in the middle of Marlow. I was...
Story Of The Day
I have no work to be getting on with at the present moment, so thought it might be entertaining to while away a few minutes telling the story of my day so fa...
Im Not A Chihuahua
I just did a survey at tickle.com, and am somewhat shocked, stunned and amazed at the result. I filled out a survey to answer the question “What kind of Dog ...
It Was All Made Up
I wonder if there is a name for the study of conversation subject paths? If you’re wondering why I’m thinking that, just read on for a few paragraphs, and yo...
Found While Surfing
If you have read the list of interests in my profile, you will see that I have “comic artwork” in there. It probably seems like a pretty childish thing to be...
Wednesday Night
Today started at 7:30am when the radio alarm woke me up. I turned to W and reminded her that I had left my bike at work last night, and that she had promised...
Defining A Meme
I was just reading somebody elses blog, and the term “meme” came up yet again - I keep seeing this term all over the place, so decided to look it up.
A Wanderer Returns
Over the last few days I have been juggling with the thought of stopping blogging all together - thinking of maybe going back to a paper diary.
A Beginning
All blogs have to start somewhere, and this is the start of this one.
2005
Working Working Working
Today finds me sat at my desk at work somewhat pleased that I am not out in the rain.
Testing New Features
The next feature that will find it’s way into the Blog script is smilies.
Autumn Fire Necklace Arrives
A couple of weeks ago I contracted a friend of mine in the states to make a necklace for W as a present for our anniversary this year. The necklace is a “one...
Shocked Stunned And Amazed
A friend of mine asked me how many times my CMS script had been downloaded, and I had to tell her that I didn’t know.
Just Released A New Version Of The Blog Script
After a bit of a slog, I have released a new version of the Blog script for people to download.
Cider Making Sunday
We have just spent our entire Sunday pressing apples from our tree in the back garden to have a go at making Cider. The following photos illustrate the steps...
Its The Weekend
It’s finally the weekend, and I feel better than I have in days.
Burning Out
I’m getting closer and closer to burning out at work. I worked late on Friday night, went back in and worked from 2pm to 6pm on Sunday, did a course all day ...
Feeling Very Low Indeed
I’m feeling about the worst I have ever, after a client called me at home (on Sunday) today and started giving me a load of hassle about a work project. I’m ...
Working At The Weekend
It’s the weekend at last - except it isn’t really for me, because I have to go back into work this afternoon to try and save a project that’s gone wrong.
Long Day
It’s been a pretty long day today. I guess it felt longer than it should because I didn’t go to bed until 1:30am last night.
Searching For Deep Sky Objects
I had the telescope out in the garden last night (mainly because it was warm). Although the visibility was appalling - you could hardly see any stars due to ...
Killer In Our Garden
I think I just caused the death of a small bird in the back garden… the picture above shows the last thing the little bird saw too.
Government Meddles With Internet Laws
It looks very much like a law is going to come into force in the UK to make it illegal to posess any media depicting a violent sexual act. This all came abou...
Flying Spaghetti Monsters Rule
In these days of internet censorship, and legions of Dudley Doorights walking the land preaching their bible-bashing sermons upon the great unwashed (read: d...
Sunday Morning In Cornwall
It’s Sunday morning, 9:15am, and I’m sat here in my parent’s study tapping away on the computer… it’s been a few days since I did a blog entry, so I thought ...
Tuesday Ends
I’m sat in the lounge, tapping away on my laptop, downloading music from e-music, and feeling pretty tired. I guess the computer clock says it’s nearly midni...
Pictures Of The Garden
It was a nice afternoon, and I had a few minutes to kill after cleaning my mountain bike (did I mention for the 50th time that I have the whole week off work...
End Of The Weekend
It’s late on Sunday night and I guess it’s the end of the weekend.
Comic Artwork Is Great
Here’s where I admit in my blog that I’m a massive fan of comic artwork. I don’t actually own many comics (about 4 I think - in various places around the hou...
Im On Holiday
It’s the weekend, and I have a week off to look forward to!!
Late Night
Last night I finally called my cousin in California after missing each other with various phone calls over the last few weeks. It transpired that she has MSN...
Quiet Sunday
It’s coming up to lunchtime on Sunday and we’re having a quiet day at home (isn’t it great sometimes when you get to just have a chilled out day at the weeke...
Early Hours Of Monday
I’m sat here playing the old trick of trying to make the weekend last longer by staying up late on Sunday night.
I Got A Gamecube
I went to Maindenhead this morning and finally got myself a Gamecube console from Gamestation. They had a few of them in second-hand, and loads of games.
Hedgehogs In The Garden
We just heard some huffing and puffing out in the garden, so turned everything off and went out to investigate - and found our resident family of hedgehogs o...
Ink Blot Test
I just took an inkblot test on the internet - where you answer set questions about a series of ink blots, and your perception of what you have seen is interp...
I Took The Brainiac Test
I just did the “Brainiac” test at www.tickle.com - I got 28 out of the 30 questions right - here’s the result summary (and I’m not gloating, honest)…
Its Late And Im Tired
It’s nearly midnight as I write this, and I’m getting tired. The X-Files movies is on the television though, so I guess I’ll stay up and watch through to the...
So Ends Another Day
If you hadn’t figure this out yet, I tend to write in my blog every day. I write about anything and everything - usually the most boring humdrum things that ...
Old Photos Re Surface
I have just discovered an old Yahoo account of mine from around the time I got married with lots of old photos in it, so have lifted them out and made a new ...
Folk Alley Rules
I found a wonderful music feed on the internet this morning called “Folk Alley” (http://www.folkalley.com). As the title would suggest, it’s a folk music web...
Book Im Reading The Heart Of The Sea
I’m currently reading “The Heart of the Sea”, a book about the true story that “Moby Dick” was inspired by.
Its That Saturday Morning Feeling
Saturday morning is almost over, and I have got nothing done. I’ve been messing around with Yahoo 360 all morning (which I knew nothing about until an old fr...
In Need Of Friends
I have been playing with the online beta of Yahoo’s new “360” service today - and so far I think it’s fantastic. The only problem I have so far is that I hav...
Bumbling Along
It’s just gone 10pm and I find myself sat at the dining table with my old laptop (so rubbish that a name has been coined for it - “the craptop”).
Advice From Swiss Tony
People outside of the UK may not know who “Swiss Tony” is. He started out as a character on a comedy sketch show called the “Fast Show”, and was so popular t...
Crap Day Gets Better
Today started out as a remarkably crap day, then got even worse, but ended on something of a high.
Truly Awful
Ever since I woke up this morning at 7am I have had a banging headache. I’ve felt really tired and feeble too. I drank water all morning to see if I was just...
Uploads Are Working Once More
I have managed to get file uploads up and running in my blog script once more (for those of you who do not know, my main blog at http://www.pluggedout.com/bl...
Putting A Crap Day Behind Me
It’s getting pretty late now, and I’m looking forward to putting a pretty crap day behind me.
Difficult Times
After dragging myself out of bed this morning I was blundering around the kitchen in my half awake state and managed to kick an empty wine bottle across the ...
Sharpening Chess Skills
Following a few defeats against a friend at work recently I decided it’s time I started putting some work into playing chess once more. I have Chessmaster up...
Cruelty To Animals On Television
I’ve just read something that has really upset me and made me incredibly angry.
Dont Want To Be Here
I’m sat here at work this morning, and I really don’t want to be here at all. I’m fed up with working here.
End Of A Day Off
It’s the end of my day off, and I find myself wondering what I’ve done all day. I got up at about ten to eight this morning because W had to go to the chirop...
30 Things About Me
This post is an attempt to write 30 things that people might not know about me. Hopefully it will be interesting to somebody somewhere. Here goes.
Fantastic Sunday
Fantastic Sunday
Home Alone
W has gone to Crystal Palace (stadium in London) to watch the Athletics with her mum tonight. I was worried that a lot of the big names were going to pull ou...
Really Really Annoyed
Okay - I am officially, really, really annoyed now. I know my blog is usually full of me moaning about things, but when events like this happen, you’ll start...
Potter Arrives
I’m in something of a quandary. My better half arrived home tonight with a present for me - the new Harry Potter book.
All Worship The Flying Spaghetti Monster
Okay - before I start, I would like to state that this will be the last post in the near future where I attack people with strong religious beliefs. I’m not ...
Slowing To A Crawl
The World Crawls
Conspiracy Theories
While sat at work this afternoon one of my colleagues asked if I had ever thought about resurrecting the ThoughtCafe website. I’m starting to wonder if there...
A Slower Pace
Today finds me relaxing into a slower pace of work than I have been used to recently. It’s nice - I get time to think about what I’m doing rather than just r...
Thoughts For The Day
Today was a strange day.
An Interesting Question Printed Books
Here’s a question for anybody who happens to read this. When a book is published internationally, do they change the spellings used to suit it’s target marke...
Thoughts On A Sunday Night
I’m sat here wondering what to write about, and I can’t really think of anything. Perhaps if I put some music on, inspiration might strike.
To Potter Or Not To Potter
I’m sat here wondering if I should order the new Harry Potter book from Amazon yet, or wait until I’ve finished reading the book I am currently reading.
On My Way To Replacing Wordpress
Hi all,
How Old Do You Think You Are
I just did the BBC “How Old Do You Think You Are?” test, and am quietly pleased with myself.
Going Back To A Home Grown Script
After a couple of months playing around with WordPress, I have gone back to my own blog script because I can do what I like with it - rather than be constrai...
Infinite Stupidity
Somebody emailed me this news story this morning because they couldn’t believe it, and I can’t believe it either…
Now I Have Seen Everything
You know there is a saying “I thought I’d seen everything but…” - well now I have.
I Have The Weirdest Dreams
It’s official. I have the weirdest dreams.
End Of A Long Day
It’s the end of a pretty long and boring day today. My spirits seem to be a bit up-and-down recently. Yesterday I had a great day - and although I didn’t rea...
Thoughtcafe Seriously
Once upon a time I built a website for amateur writers to post their writing, and get feedback on it. The website became far too successful for it’s own good...
Stepping Back From The Edge
After giving it a couple of hours thought, I have decided that if a site like ThoughtCafe does happen again, I am not going to be directly involved in it.
In A Strange Mood
I’m in a pretty strange mood today - the helpdesk at work was pretty busy this morning (Monday morning - nothing unusual there), but things have quietened do...
An Overdue Rant
While sat here drinking my coffee, I realised there have been quite a few things over the last week or so that I have been distinctly unhappy about - and in ...
War Of The Worlds
We just got back from the cinema after going to see “War of the Worlds” - the new Stephen Spielberg movie.
Friday Feeling
It’s Friday, things are slowing down, and I find myself sorting little details out here and there.
How Busy Am I
Today has been one of those days. It is now just gone 4pm, and I have hardly had time to think all day. I have been covering helpdesk for the last few weeks ...
As Promised The Eden Project
As promised, here are some pictures of the Eden project near St. Austell in Cornwall, UK
Putting My Life Back Together
After a couple of weeks away from work following our loss of the baby (although it hadn’t been born yet, we always thought of it as such), it feels somewhat ...
Going Away
We’re leaving for a few days in the morning to go and spend a few quiet days in Cornwall. We’re there from Thursday through till Monday.
Difficult Post
I’m wondering if I should be writing this or not, but thought it’s probably best - otherwise people will wonder if I’ve dissappeared off the face of the worl...
Grump Old Men
It struck me earlier this afternoon that I have not been writing in my Blog regularly.
Finally Its Friday
It’s finally friday and I am looking forward to the weekend.
Busy Busy Busy
I have finally hit a patch of calm at work, after several days working on all kinds of thingsmost of them not involving development.
Working On Cms Yet Again
I have a meeting later in the week with a BIG company to look at using my CMS code for their intranet, and later for their public internet site. It’s been sa...
The Apache Trailing Slash Problem
I just spent the best part of an hour trying to solve the infamous “Apache Trailing Slash Problem”, and then found salvation in an O’Reilly Book excert that ...
Darth Tater Invades My Desk
I got in to work this morning and discovered a Firebox package on my desk - to me, and I had no recollection of buying anything. Following a phonecall home I...
Boycott Bali
I just read a headline in the news after getting into work that made me just a bit angry…
Fantastic Weekend
This weekend marked the start of my immersion into the world of XBox Live, and quite possibly the end of my social life for a while. To paraphrase Winston Ch...
Benchmarking The Cms Project
I spent some time this afternoon benchmarking the “Content Management System” project I have been working on. For those who have no idea what that is, a “con...
Kylie Has Breast Cancer
I just read on the news that Kylie Minogue has breast cancer… quite a shock.
Tennis At Lunchtime
Myself and a colleague went and played Tennis at lunchtime today - it’s the first time I have played in about 7 or maybe even 8 years, and it was a bit of a ...
Monday Morning Shattered
It’s 11:28 on Monday morning and I’m having a break from my work for a minute or two to write in my Blog.
Saturday Morning Feeling Groovy
Hmmm… “Saturday Morning - Feeling Groovy”. Reminds me of the Simon and Garfunkel tune. I guess it sums up my mood this morning though.
Wondering Why I Bother
I really can’t figure the world out sometimes. I posted to the linux community on LiveJournal earlier about my CMS project, and rather than getting other ope...
Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
We went to see the new movie of “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” last night - and I came away with mixed thoughts about it.
Photo Friday Action
The image below was taken at the Jardin de Luxembourg in Paris, where people gather to play chess in the park. For me, the picture catches the moment wonderf...
Photo Journey From Work To Home
I thought it might be fun to do a “photo-journey” from work to home - so those outside of the UK can perhaps see what a typical town is like. Most of the pic...
Ran The Marlow 5
It’s 3pm now on Sunday, and I have just finished watching the Spanish F1 Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari didn’t finish the race because it ate it’s ...
More Pictures From The Loft
I just had a dig around up in the loft and turned up another old drawing book from the 1990’s
More Drawings From The Past
Here’s a couple more drawings from the far distant past when I used to make time to sit and draw.
Having A Good Day
This morning I went for a run with a friend - “G” - who is just starting out. We went for about a 2k run down to the edge of town and back just for him to fi...
Lunchtime Comes To An End
It’s the end of my lunch break and I’m back working on the same stuff I have been picking at for the last couple of days. It’s essentially a “plugin” for the...
Found Some Old Artwork
I just found some old artwork on an ancient Yahoo account of mine that I had forgotten about.
Watching The Clock
I’m at work this afternoon, and find myself watching the clock. We went to the clinic early this morning for W to have a blood test - by 4pm this afternoon w...
Looking Good
I had a text message on my phone from W at 4:30pm, with the word “woohoo!” in it. I called home immediately and got a very tearful W on the other end of the ...
Am I In A Minority
We sat and started watching the movie “Meet the Parents” last night - and after about an hour of it I switched the television off. I’m not sure if it’s just ...
Photos In The Garden
While kicking around the house looking for something to do this afternoon I ended up wandering around with the digital camera. What follows is the result of ...
Thinking About Open Source
I’ve just been sat here this Saturday morning talking to my other half about politics (strange, I know).
Feeling Rough
W had a bodyshop party at our house last night, so I went over to a friend’s house with the Playstation and Gran Turismo. We sat, drank beer, and played Play...
Working On Something Interesting
I am finally working on something interesting - the company website. I have a bit of a slack week this week, so have taken the chance to get going on the new...
Drained And A Bit Depressed
We had to buy a new car this weekend, because W’s is dying slowly. We discovered it had a problem the last time we went to visit my parents in cornwall - on ...
Tired But Happy
I got up at about ten to seven this morning, and went straight out the door for a run (well - I put some clothes and shoes on first, obviously). I misjudged ...
Where Did The Evening Go
I’m sat here typing this at 23:06 and wondering where on earth the evening went…
One Of Those Mornings
This morning has so far been one of those mornings. One of those mornings where everything you try and do takes twice as long as it should because you keep d...
Foundations In Place
I took the decision to request the project setups at SourceForge. I’m anticipating that my webhost will come back with a “no can do” following my enquiry abo...
Building A Development Community
I have spent the last half an hour putting the foundations in place to open my “open source” projects up to the world - to try and build a community of devel...
Running And Feeling Good
I feel just a little bit smug this evening. I got in from work (remember, I cycle 3 miles home on a mountain bike), got changed, and went out for a run. Just...
Monday Morning
It’s Monday morning, and I’m back at work.
Slow Sundays Rule
You know how you reach the end of some weeks, and are really looking forward to the weekend? (yes, I know… that’s every week). This week was one of those wee...
End Of A Long Week
This week quite a lot happened.
Playing With Livejournal
Hi all, If you’re wondering why there have been hardly any entries in my Blog for the last few days, it’s because I have been writing in LiveJournal. I start...
Its The Weekend
It’s the weekend, and finally we are getting some quality time to ourselves.
Tired And Annoyed
I checked into gMail a little while ago to send an email into work warning them that I might not be available to go on client site next week, and discovered ...
Soaked To The Skin
I just got in from work after a pretty dreadful cycle home. For those that don’t know, I cycle to work (about 3 miles) on a mountain bike.
Hacked Off
I’m sat here at work this afternoon, and I really don’t want to be here. I’ve got a dreadul cold that I’ve had since Thursday last week. It’s really getting ...
Yay Ferrari Score No Points
Fantastic - Ferrari scored no points again in the Formula One grand prix in Bahrain. Absolutely brilliant Words cannot describe how good it is for motor raci...
Hypocrits
Does it not occur to anybody else in the world how hypocritical the church is being about the Pope?
End Of Another Day
Today has been a strange kind of day. For the first time in several days the support calls have not really flooded in, meaning I could get on with developmen...
Chess Website Under Construction
Yet another project… I’m not sure I really have the time (or the will) to get this project up and running anytime soon, but I have started on the development...
Happy Easter
Just a short posting this morning to say happy easter to everybody who might read this blog - I have no idea who you are, but I hope you have a good easter w...
Off To Cornwall For Easter
The work week is drawing to a close here in the UK as we prepare for the easter break - Friday and Monday are “Bank Holidays” in the UK, so everybody gets th...
Hitting The Roads
Myself and a good friend started our training in earnest for the Marlow 5 running race in May last night - we went out for a gentle run around town just to f...
Just Taking A Break
I’m just taking a quick break from my development work (I’m at work as I write this), so thought I would write about my day so far.
Playing With Gt4
Tonight I have been playing with the “Photo Tour” mode in Gran Turismo 4 - the basic idea being that you do a few laps of a given track in one of “your” cars...
Gran Turismo 4 Rules
In what appears to be something of a pattern, I went into town to get my hair cut on Saturday morning, and there were loads of people in the barbers, so I en...
They Got It Wrong
Today I am very happy indeed. I checked the wording of my employment contract, and it turns out the company I work for DOES NOT have a clause claiming owners...
Kasparov Retires
It was something of a shock tonight to learn that Garry Karsparov has announced he is retiring from professional chess competition.
Getting Over It
I’m getting over the shock now of discovering that my contract of employment basically says that the company I work for holds the intellectual property right...
Very Annoyed Indeed
I have discovered (to my horror) that the company I work for holds the intellectual property rights over anything I do involving software development - no ma...
Getting Up Is Hard
Why is getting out of bed on Monday mornings so damn difficult?
Banished From The Kitchen
It’s Tuesday night and I find myself banished from the Kitchen.
Is It Tuesday Already
This week seems to be going past even faster than last week (if that makes any sense at all).
Testing Blog 165 Out
I’m trying out the latest version of Blog - and making it jump through hoops to work correctly with legacy data from the old version…
On Open Source Development
I have recently been asked by a student in America to help with a college assignment where he will be comparing and contrasting the views of an open source d...
Back In The Office
After what seems like a marathon week, I am finally back in the office and doing development work on projects once again.
Cms Becomes Open Source
Following all kinds of deliberation at work, it turns out they cannot license my CMS software after all - the law more or less prevents them from doing it.
Spectacular Mountain Bike Crash
Last night I had the most spectacular mountain bike accident in my own living memory…
The Monster Is Born
At about 3pm today a monster was born in the office where I work - a 64bit Linux monster
Monday Monday Daa Naa Naa Na Naa Naa
It was the Mammas and the Pappas wasn’t it? (the title of this entry).
Winning And Losing
It’s been an up and down Sunday evening… I’ve been playing chess on “PlayChess” - the Chessbase online chess site. I won a game, and lost a game.
Coasting To A Halt
After what seems like a marathon, my CMS project is finally becoming feature complete, and just needs some user interface work before it can leap towards som...
Well It Made Me Laugh
Yes, your eyes are not decieving you - that really is Anna Kournikova in the picture over on the right, and yes, she really did show the cameras everything s...
Tired And Geeked Out
I have been working throughout the weekend on the CMS scripts, trying to heave them a bit closer to the finish line that says “feature complete” - but of cou...
Stop The World
Have you ever felt like shouting “stop the world, I want to get offseveral projects are running towards deadlines at the same time as each other, and guess w...
The Best Worst Movie
I just wandered into the lounge after working on my CMS scripts for yet another evening, and came across my other/better half watching the movie “Starship Tr...
Sleepy Sunday
For what seems like the first time in weeks, we are doing nothing at all today. What a great way to spend a sunday - surfing the web (and discovering Blogcli...
I Am An Idiot
Yesterday I was working on-site and had to transfer some files from my own development FTP site - so needed the passwords. I have all my passwords on a USB k...
I Want One Of Them New Macs
Apple are releasing a new Mac.
Geeky Personality Test
I just did this test on the net…
Accident And Emergency
We had something of an eventful weekend.
Forums R Us
During my lunch hour yesterday, and a few hours last night, I managed to get a forum solution up and running on my PluggedOut webspace.
Back At Work
Today is Wednesday, and I am back at work after “missing” a day yesterday. I’ve had some paracetamol this morning and loads of water, and so far (touch wood)...
Still Worth Reading
I just had a quick look at the “Clix” chart on Diarist.
New Year Feeling Rotten
It’s supposed to be my first day back at work for the new year today, and I’m sat at home with a killer headache, and a snotty nose.
2004
Graveyard Shift
Today is Thursday 30th December, and I am at work on the “Graveyard Shift” - covering the phones between Christmas and New Year.
Slow Sundays
Today is Sunday, and I am working on CMS once more. I now have the document management system database designed and built, and am starting to look at doing s...
I Just Discovered Skype
I had heard a guy at work talking about an internet telephony package called “Skype”, but didn’t look at it until earlier on today - and am amazed to say tha...
Busy Weekend Ahead
The requirement to use the CMS project at work has finally started to appear, which means I now have to get the “missing” parts of the puzzle in place. It me...
Long Time No Blog
This blog has been sadly lacking new entries just recently, so this is the start of an attempt to put that right.
Seduced By The Dark Side
On Sunday morning I went shopping in town, and WHSmiths wasn’t open until 11am, so I had half an hour to kill…
So Ends Another Week
This week has been rather busy!
Stupid Fcking Americans
When I woke up this morning and switched the news on, I couldn’t quite believe that the American presidential election was so close…
November
Is it really the start of November already?
Difficulty Getting Up
For some reason I had real trouble getting out of bed this morning. Actually, I’ve had real trouble getting out of bed for the last few weeks (that doesn’t m...
Busy Doing Nothing I Want
It’s Monday morning, and I’ve gone the whole weekend without posting to my blog (yet again).
Busy Busy Busy
It’s the end of another week and I don’t appear to have written anything in my blog for several days… I guess that gives an indication to how hectic the last...
Crap Weekend
What a Crap Weekend.
Working On Cms Again
Greetings from a dark, rainy England.
Testing Systems
I’m kind of lost this evening… I keep starting things and then deciding to do something else instead. I wonder why?
Moving On
All things change, and I have decided (following Google throwing a load of resources at it) to move my blog writing over to Blogger.
Bored Bored Bored
I’m in one of those states of mind today where you cannot concentrate on anything too deep. Nothing has really “grabbed” me yet.
Working On Site
This morning finds me in the offices of a client in west London, working on some bespoke changes to their website.
Playing Chess Again
After an uneventful journey home on the trains (which, miraculously connected as designed), I am home once more and sat in front of a bloody computer yet aga...
Crappy End To The Day
Today has been a good day.
Saturday Again
It’s finally the weekend and I feel better than I have done in quite a while - although still not really well enough to get out running (I think if I did try...
Fixing The Car
A couple of nights ago, W got home from work and told me that the lights were playing up in her car - if she indicated right, the lights went on to full beam...
Another Day
So, it’s another new day, and another new version of Blog… it now has all the day names, month names and so on in the config file to make it really easy for ...
New Feature
The Blog script has progressed to version 1.6.2 this evening with a new feature;
Back To Work
I’m back in the office this morning after several days spent at home suffering and/or recuperating from a pretty nasty virus. It was kind of everything assoc...
Recuperating
It would appear that I am actually getting better today… thank god!
Watching Chess
While off work this afternoon I have been huddled up in the study, wrapped in my housecoat with a succession of cups of tea, both watching and listening to c...
Off Work
I’m at home today with a pretty horrible cold. It’s not a snotty nose cold; more an aches, pains, coughs and headache cold… not very nice.
The Hidden Cost Of Xp
I went to my in-law’s house yesterday and won the fight against the collection of trojans and viruses that had infested their computer.
Plans For The Future
I’m caught in two minds this evening. Having finished building the PluggedOut Penpals website, I am very tempted to do a full-on profile/networking/blogging/...
Blagging Signed Photos
While looking around on the net for anywhere I can get records of Sissel from (she’s this amazing singer - you will have heard her voice without realising it...
Sysadmin In The Evening
This evening I have been performing the necessary evil tasks that most people should probably do when they get a new computer…
Zooming Along
We went shopping yesterday for a new computer (at last). For the past couple of years we have been “surviving” at home with a rag-tag combination of bits of ...
Slogging Away
Some days it feels like you are slogging away and not really getting anywhere.
Is It Selfish
Is it selfish to wonder if you are ever going to get a whole weekend to yourself to do what you want to do? This weekend I only lost the one day (today), but...
Writing A New Website
Hi to anybody who reads this babble.
Linux Rules
I installed Mandrake Linux 10 on my little laptop at home last night - and it has to be said, I’m pretty pleased with it.
Wiped Out
Today was bank holiday monday in the UK and both myself and W are wiped out.
News From The Eye Of The Storm
The last couple of weeks probably need to go down in history as the most stressful of my professional career - and probably give a reason for so few postings...
Getting A Day Back
Today myself and my colleague/manager CH were supposed to drive over to a large automotive company to show them their newly installed workflow system… except...
Finally Released Cms
I finally released the CMS “Content Managment System” code to the internet this evening - although it’s worth pointing out that it’s still only at version 0....
Tired Angry And Annoyed
I really didn’t want to get up for work today. I had thoughts about going running first thing this morning, but my alarm went off at 7am and I didn’t get out...
Busy Times
It would appear that there is something of a pattern to these journal entries. There have not been many posts recently, and while pondering on this a reason ...
The End Of Another Week
I know, I know - I haven’t been writing much in my blog recently.
Feeling Like Death
Isn’t it strange how you can feel like death after a particularly hard workout, then an hour later you are fine again…
Keep On Running
I went for my second training run of the week this morning - another 5K under my belt in preparation for the race I’m running on Thursday night.
Home With My Thoughts
We’ve finally arrived home after several days of mayhem.
Damn And Blast
I was halfway through writing an entry for this damned Blog when I stopped to go and have something to eat. I got back, finished writing, clicked on “submit”...
Tired But Making Progress
I was at work until 18:45 this evening, cycled home through howling wind and driving rain, and have been sat here ever since working on CMS once more. I supp...
Would You Let This Man Run Your Company
It struck me this morning how Steve Ballmer has the incredible skill of looking almost infinitely stupid regardless of the situation you put him in. Would yo...
Working On Cms Tonight
This evening I am holed up in the front room of the house with my laptop, working on changes to the CMS system to make it more suitable for commercial use.
Lunchtime Runs Out
I’ve been sat here for the last five minutes thinking that I should really write a “proper” entry for my blog (after putting up the admittedly funny picture ...
Making Decisions
While driving back from W’s parents last night I decided that my “further involvement” in the web might take the form of posting more often to my Blog… maybe...
Sunday Mornings Rule
Aren’t sunday mornings great… I finally got up at just gone 9 this morning, and have sat here with a cup of earl grey and the internet for the last hour… it’...
Tired And Lacking Motivation
Listless
Harry Potter
We went to the cinema last night to see “Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban”. In my opinion it’s the best HP movie yet, and most importantly actually h...
Back To Basics
I decided this evening to do a bit of a make-over on my blog script. Out go all the table parameters, and in come nice, simple CSS tags.
Long Time No Write
It seems like so long since I wrote an entry in my online diary - hence this short entry I guess.
Back From Holiday
I’m back at work this morning, and waiting for a process to complete on a remote server - hence writing an entry in this blog.
On The Road Again
I went for a run this morning - the start of my training for the 5K runnning race W has entered me into during July. I set off at about 7:30am, and did about...
Middle Of The Week
For some reason I find myself writing this in an old copy of Microsoft Works on my old steam powered laptop. Some people probably think that because I am a s...
First Entry For A While
I’m constantly amazed how many people read this blog, and sometimes guilty that my entries are somewhat patchy in frequency… perhaps it’s because there has b...
The Bb Experiment Continues
With little or no advertising on the internet (basically, a couple of newsgroup postings), people seem to be finding their way into the forum I built for Big...
Big Brother Is Back
Yes, that’s right - the mind-numbing phenomenon that is Big Brother is back on our TV screens in the UK, so I have decided to make a website for it
Yahoo Messenger Rocks
I have just installed the latest version of Yahoo Messenger on my computer at work, and have to say I’ve not been this impressed with a piece of software in ...
Blog Version 16 Breaks Cover
After a long coding session last night, I got the templating system up and running in Blog, and incremented the version number to 1.6.
Newsgroups Defragging And Ponds
For some reason I went all the way through yesterday without writing an entry in my blog. At one point I even had it on my screen, but didn’t get as far as t...
Green Fingers And Chess
Last night after getting in from work (following the episode - still ongoing - with the huge database hack), I helped W in the garden. W’s had a bad back so ...
Hacking The System
I have spent the greater part of today hacking the database behind a corporate document management system to revise the meta-data being held against document...
Learning About Rss
Yesterday afternoon my better half W called in where I work to give me my house keys - it turns out I had left them on the side when I left for work. She was...
Too Hot To Work
One of my colleagues is busy organising a popular uprising on our floor of the office. He is threatening to throw the health and safety handbook at the HR de...
Hell Of A Week
Late last week I had a milestone meeting for the gargantuan project I have been working on for the last few months (and bleeting about in my blog to try and ...
Tarot Cards
I have a tarot card that came with a Microsoft magazine on my desk today - it’s got a drawing of a geek on it, and is called “the developer”. You can imagine...
Playing With Webcams
I tried installing my old webcam on my laptop last night. To be honest, I forgot I had a webcam until I was rooting around behind the units in the junk room,...
Bored Beyond Belief
If you are online and want to have a very stupid conversation with a very bored person (who has his webcam switched on), give me a shout.
Chuffed To Little Mint Balls
Where on earth does the phrase “chuffed to little mint balls” come from? All I know is I am extremely pleased because the programming I have been working on ...
Is It Really May Already
Just a quick message to say thanks to all those who have sent me messages on Yahoo, MSN, and so on to let me know they are there and reading this Blog I hav...
Hell Of A Week
Message Me
Missing An Old Friend
I have just lost two games of chess in a row on FICS (the free internet chess server). I played like a complete idiot. My skills are definitely not “impressi...
Back From Ireland
Following a 15 hour journey home, we are back from our holiday in Ireland, and I’m back at work slogging away on the project I’ve been working on for the las...
Fed Up With Blogging
I’m really fed up with posting boring entries to this blog, and not really knowing if anybody reads it.
Back To Work
It’s the Tuesday after easter and I am back at work (sat here with a cup of coffee as I write this - probably my last coffee for a while, because I think it ...
Money Falls From The Sky
Those that read this blog regularly will know that once upon a time I used to run a writing website called ThoughtCafe, and that it closed down at the end of...
A Chess History
I just put an introductory message on the Orkut (www.orkut.com) Chess community - I thought it might be interesting for those that read this blog too, so her...
Proper Job
This weekend I are reportin’ from deepest darkest Cornwall (the south westerly tip of England for those who only really know England as that little island th...
End Of An Era
I have just switched off the ThoughtCafe website.
Tired And A Bit Drunk
Well, I’m not really drunk, but I’m not really sober either. Since getting in from work this evening all I’ve really done is mess around on the internet, pla...
Another Bout Of Apathy
I’m sat here at work staring at Textpad (the program I’m writing this in), and the reams of SQL in the window behind it, and listening to some classical musi...
Re Writing Blog
Okay - before I start, I should perhaps re-iterate that this diary is based on code that I wrote, and I give away as “open source” to whoever wants a copy.
Looking Forward To The Weekend
I have had what many would call “one hell of a week”.
Mammoth Coding Stretch
I have just completed a mammoth coding stretch on a project that’s having a milestone meeting tomorrow. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, wh...
Appearing On Gmtv
This morning my wife and I were up at 5am, and were picked up at just gone 6am for the trip to the GMTV studios.
We Are Now Wireless
After a bit of a spending spree today in PC World, our house now has wireless networkingis the speed of the thing. Event printing full page graphics, it stil...
Working On A Saturday
It’s 9:37 on a Saturday morning as I start writing this, and I am in the office at work. In return for having the day to go filming at GMTV, I am working thr...
Filming For Gmtv
I am absolutely shattered this morning.
Chugging Along
I thought it was about time that I wrote a blog entry for March… I could end up changing the way Blog works to show the last N entries rather than “this mont...
No Va Va Voom
Over the last couple of days I have been suffering from what I can only describe as a terminal lack of “vavavoom”… I guess the real word for it would be “apa...
Working Night And Day
At the moment it really does feel like I’m working night and day… in the daytime I am working on a logistics system for a corporate client, and in the evenin...
Herculean Efforts
I was up until 1am programming again last night - the CMS code is now up to version 0.3 in the development area. Although you can’t see any difference at all...
Announcing The Cms Project
Hi all,
Feeling Pretty Good
For the first time in a few weeks I’m actually feeling okay. Still not 100%, but getting there
Walking Around Town
I’ve just got back from a training walk with W - she’s doing a marathon distance walk later in the year to support a cancer charity. Normally the evening wal...
Swimming Backwards
I feel like I’m swimming backwards at the moment. There are so many things I want to be getting on with (such as the CMS content management system project th...
Tuesday Again
What is it about Tuesdays? I seem to write in my blog at some point on a Tuesday these days.
Keep On Running
It’s mid morning on Tuesday, and I am working on an extension to some software I wrote a llllooonnnggg time ago. It’s going fairly well, but it somewhat bori...
First Blog Of 2004
Can you really believe that I have not put an entry in my blog this year so far?
2003
No News Today
Woudln’t it be great if you switched the news on one day, and the newsreader said “There is no news today, so we will be showing Will and Grace an hour early...
Love Actually Is All Around
I seem to find less and less time to put entries into my Blog… to be honest I think it has something to do with me being a Pisces. I tend to drift like the w...
Where Did The Year Go
It’s the third of December and this is my first blog entry for a couple of weeks. I guess I should make a bit more of an effort really…
I Just Lost Again
I just setup an account on ICC (Internet Chess Club) and subjected myself to a number of wipeouts playing chess… admittedly I was only playing 5 or 6 minute ...
Ssx Tricky Rules
I have spent the last few evenings taking it in turns with W to play SSX Tricky on the PS2. I had never bought an extreme sport game before, and only really ...
I Am The Chessmaster
I am a little enthused at the moment.
Sick Again
I came home from work at lunchtime today - W is off work too; we both have pretty bad colds. When I got in she was quite shocked - apparently I have dark lin...
Mayhem
I think today will go down in my memory as one of those days you would prefer you hadn’t had.
Running Without Moving
As you will have noticed if you have visited via the “blog” URL, I am in the process of re-writing the Blog script, and have now ditched the old version. Ove...
Getting There
I’m spending my lunchtime at work changing the layout of the PluggedOut website a bit - making a “Projects” page.
New Blog Version Out
I have finally released the first beta of the re-written Blog script
Home Alone
I have stayed off work today after losing the battle with an ear infection. I thought about going in at lunchtime, and started to get ready - but bent down t...
Nanowrimo
For some ridiculous reason, one of my best friends on the internet has talked me into taking part in the nanowrimo competition.
A Sad Day
Today is a pretty sad day. We have decided to pull the plug on the ThoughtCafe website when the current hosting agreement runs out.
Very Very Tired
Today is Friday, and I am extremely tired. What’s worse, I have no prospect of a break until next weekend. Do you ever feel like the world is becoming unfair?
Busy Busy Busy
Last night W was at her book group so I found myself on my own for the evening. I managed to spend 90% of it messing around with ThoughtCafe once more - addi...
Mad Week On Site
It’s been a pretty mad week once again.
Its The Weekend
It’s 10:45am on Saturday morning, and I’m sitting at the laptop starting work on a website for my cousin in San Francisco (reminder : I’m in the UK).
One Of Those Weeks
It’s been a strange week really.
Saturday Morning
It’s 11am on Saturday morning and I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Last night W had a “Body Shop” party, with a few friends round, so myself, my br...
Tired And Painful
This morning I got out of the shower, got dressed and was busy wandering around the house finding stuff for work (as you do), when suddenly my neck stiffened...
Our Mouse Murdering Cat
If you want to read about our murderous cat, scroll down a bit…
Lazy Day In Cornwall
We have travelled down to visit my parents in Cornwall for the weekend, and are having a very lazy Sunday indeed. I think being away from home kind of forces...
Is It September Already
I can’t believe it’s September already… It does seem like it should be for some reason. August didn’t seem to happen this year - perhaps this is the kind of ...
Getting Better
I’m back at work today (and not feeling too clever, it has to be said). My powers of healing seem to be about as good as usual though - I was really bad for ...
Home With A Cold
Today I am sat at home with a pretty horrid cold… one of the people I work with brought it in, and somehow I managed to catch it. I must hold the world recor...
Abandonware Rules
When I got up this morning I really didn’t want to go to work. I was up at 7am, and sat watching breakfast television for a while. Eventually I gave myself a...
Exploiting Vote Systems
Is it time to own up to the Diarist exploit that’s put me on top of the referrals list?
Wiped Out
I’m guessing that the people who lived here before wanted their garage base to survive a tactical nuclear strike.
Indian Restaurant
We went to the “Tiger Garden” indian restaurant in town last night - my Aunt from America was staying over before flying home, so took us out for something t...
No More Food
We went out for dinner last night with some friends to a local pub that has started doing a “curry night”. We arrived at about half past seven, to find that ...
Strange Week
On Wednesday this week, myself and my father-in-law went on a “Hawk Flying Experience” day at the Andover Hawk Conservancy (www.hawk-conservancy.org).
My Computer Is Infested
After my other half told me that she had some trouble rebooting the computer this morning, I did a search on the internet for some of the suspicious looking ...
Back In The Office
I am back working in the office today, after a couple of days working in Swindon. The one great thing that I got out of the last couple of days was reading “...
Trains And Trucks
For the last two days I have been working on-site at Swindon - about an hour and a half journey by train.
Quickdraw Mcgraw
I had an early start today to go and visit a client on-site. I left the house at about 7:35 to catch the early train. The journey there was as uneventful as ...
A Quiet Day
It’s Saturday afternoon and my only contribution to the world for the day (so far) was to walk into town this morning and buy a newspaper…
Fire And Brimstone
It’s Thursday afternoon, and the world seems to be falling down around my ears. I am working alone on the upper floor of the company. There are presently fou...
Wednesday Night
It’s wednesday night, and I’m sat here fiddling around with the code that makes up the page you are reading right now. I’m worried that the whole thing is a ...
All Airshowed Out
I went to Fairford “Royal International Air Tattoo” with my brother on Sunday. Apparently officionado’s call it “RIAT”. I think I’ll call it an Airshow.
Another Day Away
It’s Tuesday morning in sunny Manchester and I’m sitting in the BUPA building at Anchorage one, having just dealt with my first Kofax Ascent question. It’s h...
On Site In Manchester
It’s 14th July, I’m sat in the offices of BUPA in Manchester, and I’m tired. I’m also bored.
Tired And Busy
This week has been a bit of a nightmare. It’s Friday already and I feel like it’s about Wednesday… it’s just been one of those weeks.
New Blog Version
Hi all,
We Are Back
Just a quick note to let everybody who reads this know that we are back from the states. We arrived at Heathrow this morning, got home lunchtime, slept a bit...
2 Days To Go
We fly to the US on Saturday morning from London Heathrow - only today and tomorrow to survive at work before 2 weeks away from all the hassle…
Finding Time
We are going to America!
Hectic Weekends
We got up early on Saturday to get into London (I had to get a new passport).
Sick As A Dog
We went out to a housewarming party on Friday night. I didn’t know if I should go or not, because I had been going downhill all the way through Friday at wor...
Camping Is Great
We went camping over the weekend (and I had yesterday off - 4 day weekend
Long Time No Write
The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy for me (hence no entries in this blog).
Work Work Play Play
Today I am relaxed. I wouldn’t say the work I have been doing is easy, but it’s not exactly difficult either. I’m writing a migration program to turn a dataf...
When I Get Time
The last week or so has been manic, but in the midst of working on-site, having a never ending stream of visitors and helping do work on the garden, I have s...
My Arms Are Killing Me
I suppose I should have expected it, but my arms are absolutely killing me since I went to the Gym on sunday morning. Okay - it’s two days later, and people ...
First Day At The Gym
This morning I had my “induction” session at the gym in town. I won’t say I was exactly nervous (never having been to a gym before), but I was certainly apre...
Why Are Fridays So Slow
I really should try and update this Blog more often. It looks better when there are more entries
Back In The Office Again
It’s lunchtime, and I am back in the office at work once more.
I Need Sleep
Last night I got in from work, tidied up a bit, then spent most of the evening installing a computer for a friend (well - an hour or so). I think the compute...
Holiday Blues
We got back from our holiday on Saturday night - after a nine hour drive from Scotland. We took it in turns to break the journey up, which worked quite well....
Mexican Cheese Sandwiches
We now have only two days before we go on holiday, and I’m really looking forward to it. We’re off to the “Firth of Fourth” in Scotland - we will be staying ...
An Up And Down Week
It’s been the kind of week you don’t like to have too often. Loads crammed into it, and not really enough time to take stock properly.
Avoiding Work
It’s Wednesday morning and I’m avoiding doing too much this morning - even though I have a quite a few things to do. For some strange reason, even though I h...
Vogon Constructor Fleet
We’ve just been messing around in the office (trying not to do any work) and I came up with the following rather stupid sketch…
One Hell Of A Week
This week has been like walking in treacle… whatever that might feel like!?
Emulators Rule Today
Last night I installed ZSNES and KEGA on the laptop at home (along with several hundred ROM images downloaded from alt.binaries). Oh what fun I had… well, I ...
Pizza And Beer Rule
Today is a good day.
Pausing Between Reboots
Today I am at work and I’m not really sure why. I feel like crap (I did all weekend), and can’t really concentrate properly.
A Rather Busy Day
Today was one of those days that started out quite quietly and got faster as the day went on.
Drifting Along
I’m bored and trying to think of what to write.
End Of Another Day
It’s getting near the end of the first day of the week (and as the HR department helpfully pointed out, a fifth of the way towards the weekend).
Windows Free Zone
Woohoo!
Sleepy Saturday
Woohoo! I cooked dinner last night and it was great (I didn’t poison W!!). We had Chilli, made with Quorn mince (veggie substitute - W doesn’t eat meat), kid...
Its Valentines Day
It’s valentines day and I was planning on leaving an hour early to pop into town and pick up some flowers and ingredients for tea… except my project manager ...
Calendar Feature Added
I just spent most of the evening adding a calendar feature to the script.
Opening The Source
I finally did it - I opened up the Blog script to the community.
How Many Hits
Since opening the source code for this noddy little bunch of scripts last night, I’ve been somewhat taken aback by the number of apparent visitors into the p...
Tired And Bored
I’m sat at my desk this afternoon after being in and out of the office for the last few days, and I don’t really know what to do next…
Dead On My Feet
After pulling a late nighter working on my website last night, finally getting to bed at about 2:30, the tiredness has really hit me this afternoon.
Forging Ahead With Tc
After a week of concentrated effort, the new ThoughtCafe site code is becoming more stable, and the bugs are falling out as I work on it.
On Site And Using The Web
Today has been a long day already.
Tired And Bored
If anybody that reads this is wondering why there is such a huge gap between entries, it’s because I’ve just been so damn busy!
Another Monday
It’s another Monday and I’m back at work after a week off enjoying time at home decorating and working on the new ThoughtCafe website.
Monday Morning And I Feel Fine
It’s monday afternoon and I’m sat here after having read a number of comments on my own blog from a rather colourful character who seems to have rather too m...
I Hate Smoking
It’s been a funny kind of day today so far - I got up a bit later than normal and got a lift into work with my infinitely superior other half (W), then figur...
First Real Entry
I suppose “technically” I have missed posting an entry into this online diary for the first of January, because it took longer than 40 minutes to get the ini...