All Blog posts
2025: Year of enough
Instead of setting new year's resolutions, I'm a big fan of setting a theme for the year. This is inspired by a video by C G P Grey. A couple of years ago was the year of slow, last year was the year of connection and this year is going to be the year of enough.
2024 in Review: A Tepid Bath of Managed Decline
Towards the end of last year, Kier Starmer attacked civil servants, saying they were 'comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline.' It was a classic case of projection, where you accuse others of your problems. Civil servants are hard working but are not supported by the system. Instead of lashing out, he would do better to look closer to home.
Best Music of 2024
One advantage of living in the countryside is commuting into the office. I live about forty-five minutes away from the city, which is the perfect time to listen to an album. I made more of an effort to listen to new music which paid off.
Best Books of 2024
It's been a good year for books. I've finished 42 this year (here's the full list) which is a little below usual, but I've enjoyed savouring and taking my time with them. Currently I'm halfway through Don Quixote and unlikely to finish before the new year. So here are my favourite books of the year in arbitrary categories.
Three Ghosts
In this Christmas film, Tiny Tim is wrapped
in yellowed sheets, fever embracing him tight.
Unnamed family members stand round the bed
muttering 'rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb' to give
the illusion of speech. Not long to go now.
Then a swell of strings, spotlight narrows -
A miracle! Tiny Tim sits upright in bed
and starts to tell weeping extras a story of
500 Posts: Failing in Public
This is my five hundredth post on this website. I've had this site since 2016 in various forms. During that time, it's become one of the most valuable things I've done.
Dancers
All these whirring, vibrant blurs,
this rare and joyous music,
the sensation of breeze over bare skin
as I twirl in the summer sun
dizzy, exhilarated, smiling-
Custodians of the Gloaming
I have stumbled into the season of crows.
Still silhouettes watch my lethargic bones
shuffle through leaf murk into the gloom.
Sometimes Things Just Suck
CW: Death, grief and politics
Uncertainty
Erasure poem taken from Crack magazine