Recently updated blogs

One of the biggest areas for English teachers is the ‘why’ aspect of analysis. Why does the writer do this? Over the years, we have seen paragraph structures to address this and we even seen lists of verbs to address this issue. The problem is that whatever way we approach things we are using a pneumatic drill to open a flower. Things are usually more subtle, nuanced and complex than …

And with that project finished, another £54 gets put into the hobby fund. A couple more projects to go before there’s enough in the kitty for the big summer releases

Sea Fever (Neasa Hardiman, 2019) As far as niche sub-genres go, sea-bound eco/survival horror is generally a good bet, and this modest, primarily Irish indie production takes a pretty convincing shot at it. It’s a rather less exciting prospect to try to write about, truth be told, but I feel like telling you about it nonetheless, so buckle up, and we’ll get through this whole ‘review’ thing together. So, synopsis …

I believe tonight is the formal drop for the sixth and last episode of Monsieur Spade, which reminds me I have further ongoing commentary on hand by Terry Zobeck to nudge out onto The Mean Streets. I don’t believe there’s any cause for cliffhanger excitement. If Terry squeaks more in so it is “live,” or if shows up a few days after the fact, all good enough. For the third …

Yesterday we both went on a one day “Hobby Chainsaw” course at a local college. We’ve inherited a chainsaw, and often have some chunky wood to dispose of, but didn’t have the courage to use the thing. Wielding a chainsaw not entirely naturally It was a fun day and really helped. It hadn’t occurred to me that we’d take chainsaws apart but that helped with demystifying them a great deal. …

“Self-hate is really the same thing as sheer egoism, and in the long run breeds the same cruel isolation and despair.” “To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight,” E.E. Cummings told students from the hard-earned platform of his middle age, not long after Virginia …

Copyright David Kushner Growing up in the 90s, id Software was synonymous with groundbreaking games – and parental concern (how did I get away with playing DOOM?!). David Kushner’s “Masters of Doom” (ISBN 9780749924898) dives into the origin story of this iconic studio, focusing on its founding duo: John Carmack, the programming prodigy, and John Romero, the rockstar designer. While I devoured the id Software classics like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein …

Proxy mother Tikoy Aguiluz's Bagong Bayani was made in two months on a shoestring budget, has been plagued by unaccountable production delays (due to pressure from Viva Studios, perhaps?); so far no theater has agreed to release it, so the closest you might get is this article. Which is a filthy shame: Bagong Bayani is the best Filipino film of the year. "But the year's only half over," you might …

So, my last attempt fix a few things around here did not go entirely to plan. There were issues with the footnote rendering (particularly on small screens, and especially when Javascript was not enabled). This weekend, I have gone back to the drawing board, and also gone a lot further (I hope!) with my Webmentions experiments. Footnotes The fundamental issue with the footnotes was that the anchors pointing to the …

Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I’m now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I’ll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow me on Mastodon here.

I don’t know about you but I spent most of my life not knowing what I wanted to do. I never had dreams or big goals. Never had a dream job, never aimed for something specific. I spent most of my life drifting through it, without trying to stir the ship all that much. I don’t know why I did it, it’s probably because of the kind of person I …

International Peening Day on the first weekend in April each year is a great opportunity to get out scythe blades from hibernation and get them cleaned and peened ready for the new season. There are inevitably occasions where rust forms and it needs removing to restore the blade. This ranges from light surface rust blooms when blades are left and not cleaned and oiled in a timely manner, to heavily …

Kelly Link's stories are often inspired, in some small or large way, by fairy tales, but they are modern stories and in no way emulations of the classic fairy tales. White Cat, Black Dog is her fifth collection, and it contains seven stories, the first concerns a white cat, and the last a black dog, thus giving rise to the book's title. And it follows the flow of a typical …

The Killers (1964), directed by Don Siegel

The Midnight Pub - A tiny forum in the form of a virtual pub. It even has a speakeasy. This website is personal - Frills - I really identify with this post, and the feeling that my posts aren’t worth anything if they’re not useful in some way. In reality there are no rules at all about what you should post on a personal site! Don’t Disable Form Controls - …