Recently updated blogs

Really. And no, I’m not about to follow that statement up with something annoying like “…Because I love it! Haha!” either. I know the general term has its uses but I could do without the retro gaming mindset entirely, if I’m honest. I think we’d all be better off chucking that artificial distinction in the bin. If I happen to say I like a game made in 1981, or for …

My favorite songs of 2024.

It’s now 2025, thank God. And if you’re a chick, wiith the coming of a new year comes, of course, horoscopes. I am a Libra (Libra sun, Libra moon, Libra rising), so it’s not exactly my year. But my horoscope … Continue reading →

Reading Time: 35 minutes New year, new worries, same old Web Curios! Even in the maelstrom of moderately-unsettling uncertainty that is Q2 of the 21st Century, rest assured that I am once again here to greet you with open arms, a tear-streaked face and a hug that you will initially find welcoming but will, as it continues without showing signs of stopping, begin to make you feel uncomfortably like I …

In my last post I said that I ought to write a guide to helping those caught up in a disaster. I truly hoped it would be a long time before this type of thing was needed, but unfortunately I … Continue reading →

I think not!This is a modern 80s built house, and the ivy has been allowed to grow right the way across the upstairs window (the house had been unoccupied for a while), covering it completely, and heading on upwards into the gutter and into the roof.I sent my colleague up the ladder (I'm not daft!) to pull it off, and we found that the ivy had forced a way inside …

Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) • View trailer4.5 stars (out of five). Rated PG, and needlessly, for mild rude humorAvailable via: NetflixBy Derrick Bang Filmmaker Nick Park already had won two Oscars, the second for Wallace & Gromit’s The Wrong Trousers, when American viewers finally got to see that hilariously clever claymation short via a Wednesday evening PBS screening on March 20, 1995. That’s how long it took to cross the …

Summerhall Arts charity announces future plans Summerhall will be a venue at EdFringe 2025 according to Summerhall Arts, the independent charity set up in 2023 to take over the running of Summerhall’s arts and performance programme. The charity says that it is now welcoming applications for performers and theatre companies for this year’s fringe. And that besides being a venue at future fringes, it intends to run a “diverse programme …

NO SINKING FEELINGS HERE, GIRLFRIEND Call it a jukebox musical if you like, but only if the jukebox came alive, went rogue and started tottering around the stage on rubber feet hurling insults and doing its own thing like the one in the Kuttner sci-fi story which got modified by aliens from the future. Curiosity drove me into a snug balcony seat up against the sound-desk (high-fives with the young …

Belated happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to the (can it be?) eighth year of My Life 100 Years Ago.* J.C. Leyendecker, January 3, 1925 This year’s J.C. Leyendecker New Year’s baby apparently just registered his new car and immediately has to repair it, which I gather is par for the course for ca. 1925 vehicles. John Held Jr., January 5, 1925 Cars can be fun, though, as you can …

By IlmariI bet that “sail” is meant to be taken literallyWould this do the trick?Apparently notSo, here I was in front of a shack. I still had no idea where I was supposed to be heading and Nada suggested I should take a look at who’s living there. I knocked on the door and an old lady called Ma Anathe (get it, it’s like anathema) let us in.I guess Christmas …

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things after a welcome Christmas and New Year break. I mentioned last week that I had sidelined myself into writing a probably unnecessary article on the history of newsprint rationing during and just after the Second World War (1940-56). Well, that came about because I wanted to write about why newspapers were still dramatically reduced in size all the

Illustrations by Michelle Perez.It’s odd that a movie like Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) should have an unsettling climax. Mike Leigh’s film stars Sally Hawkins as Poppy, a bubbly kindergarten teacher who takes a few driving lessons with a curmudgeonly Scott (Eddie Marsan). He dispatches conspiratorial rants, replete with right-wing dog whistles, and berates her for her clumsiness. He is, in the language of professional wrestling, the heel to Poppy’s face. Poppy’s life …

Posted on January 10, 2025 Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:painting, medium:acrylic A few days ago1 I wanted to paint, but I didn’t know what to paint, so I did a few more colour tests to find out which green combinations I can get out of the available yellows and blues (and greens) acrylic I have (from a cheap student grade line). I liked the cool grey tones in the second to last …

Update (Jan. 13): Readers might enjoy the Bankless Podcast, in which I and Justin Drake of the Ethereum engineering team discuss quantum computing and its impact on cryptocurrency. I learned something interesting from Justin—namely that Satoshi has about $90 billion worth of bitcoin that’s never been touched since the cryptocurrency’s earliest days, much of which (added: the early stuff, the stuff not additionally protected by a hash function) would be …