I've sort of started my PhD. There is a lot of paperwork from the university, some of which doesn't need to be completed for six months, some of which seems more important. I have been working through it all. I have my NUS discount card, my parking permit[1], have uploaded the photograph for my student ID card (I don't have it yet.) I have been ( Read more... )

This morning, fuelled by coffee for the lack of sleep and painkillers for the causes of the lack of sleep, Josh (aged 3) is playing World of Warcraft. I have taught him the basics of the game and he is currently running around in some caves digging for precious metals and ores.

Yes, I have sent my child down the mines.

Running on empty ( Read more... )

I am sitting in a strangely comfortable high backed armchair in BBC Broadcast Centre. It swivels. It is the sort of chair a Bond villain would have, if he[1] worked in an open plan office. I feel like a villain today. Here is why ( Read more... )

I have been off facebook since the start of November. The first week was the hardest; got the cold shakes and wanted to log on to see if anyone had posted any cat memes. There is no methadone programme for the datastream; you can't take patches, or chew newsfeed gum. You just have to sit in the dark and wait for the pain to stop. I took ( Read more... )

Words. Words. Come on words. Mostly I would like you to start to move again; asking you to flow is too much, but you could move about a little bit. Once I poked molten mud with a stick. It was grey on the surface but red hot beneath the crust. It moved like ripples in a pond of custard. Except it was school custard from the 1970s - before colour - ( Read more... )

This morning I stopped reading fiction ( Read more... )

I am sitting in the reception of Radio 1 - the flagship BBC radio station for pop music in the UK. I have no idea what I am listening to. It reminds me of shopping for jeans ( Read more... )

There are two things I am not allowed to do by my wife. To be specific, these are the only two named things. I'm sure that if I decided to bonk the baby sitter on account of 'that not being on the list of things I am not allowed to do' I'd be treated to an initial withering glance before castration and messy death; fortunately I have no plans in ( Read more... )

Close to needing an early night now. Today has been a little bit full on; got lost in Camden for a while - not managed to do that for well over a decade - HP and I hunting down lost treasure, making plans, setting parts of the world to rights. All too soon I needed to go to training. A drive across North London listening to surprise aggrotech (a ( Read more... )