Recent Posts

• December 30, 2020

  Bye bye 2020

  I made some resolutions at the beginning of this year. It was a weird year, how did that go?

• June 19, 2020

  Three Months of Remote Work

  I’ve been working on my living room table for three months now. Mostly there. My back started to cave in on itself after a month or so, so I got a standing desk to put on the kitchen counter. The employer picked up half the cost so I got a nice wooden one. I’ve been cycling through those locations, moving when my watch vibrates because I haven’t moved for two hours, or when I sit at slightly the wrong angle and get shooting pains. That second one might be ageing. Standing is better for my posture, but being in the kitchen puts me very close to multiple bread products, so it’s not perfect.

• May 08, 2020

  No More Weeks of Lockdown?

  Today is Friday. Boris Johnson is going to say some stuff on TV on Sunday. Since the UK government is a complete shitshow, the bulk of it has been leaked, discussed and speculated about already. Everyone has made their plans, and their plans involve going out. The government are supposedly intending to do what a few other European countries are doing and ease the lockdown a little bit. Germany are doing it, the Bundesliga starts back up next week. Denmark are doing it, but let’s ignore that Denmark had eight deaths today, and the UK had six hundred and twenty six. People seem to have taken these leaks and speculations about a speech (that hasn’t happened yet) to mean the whole thing’s finished. Pandemic over. Mainly because we’re sick of sitting around.

• April 16, 2020

  Three More Weeks of Lockdown

  I went to Sainsbury’s the other day for bread and milk. There was a queue outside and a bouncer at the door. Everyone was lined up with two metres between them, the shop operated a one-in-one-out policy. There were two large posters outside, one outlining the distancing policy, one imploring people not to hoard goods. I was twelfth, but it took less than ten minutes to get in. Inside was pretty well stocked. The toilet paper crisis seems to have abated, and we’ve moved on to the flour and egg crisis. Everyone was eyeing each other awkwardly, the aisles far too narrow to keep the appropriate distance apart. The self checkouts were only enabled for alternate machines, so you don’t have to get too close, and the human checkout had a large plastic screen set up to prevent the virus from jumping onto the cashier. You leave your items, then walk back. The cashier rings it up, then walks back. You pay, and then walk back home. I’d consider that a quick and successful grocery shopping.

• March 25, 2020

  Ghosteen

  I got into Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds originally circa 1999 or 2000. The live album (Live Seeds) was a strong favourite, things like The Mercy Seat and Papa Won’t Leave You Henry were full energy punches to the face, and even the slower stuff like the Ship Song had me breaking out the acoustic guitar. The other big hitters of my early Cave years were Let Love In and Murder Ballads, the latter of which is largely jokey, but still pulls together Shane MacGowan, PJ Harvey, Kylie Minogue, a 14 minute track about a guy massacring an entire bar, and the joy of my teenage years, The Curse of Millhaven. This is even before I came near The Boatman’s Call.