It’s about 7:30pm I’m walking down the stairs from my flat. I have been talking to my landlord. When I arrived, he was vacuuming those stairs, ready for a new couple who he says want to look at the place next door to mine in the block. We chatted, I picked up the things I […]

Sorry about the technical problems with the site yesterday—my 12Apr04 entry is now visible; see below. As well as PooterGeek being back up, I’m generally in a more positive mood after an Easter break of callisthenics and music-making, so I’m going to rave (at more length than usual) about two things—one musical and one literary—and […]

Don’t get a job; get a vocation.

This site seems to carry a lot of good advice.

Murph comments on the “Conspicuous Compassion” question over at Oliver Kamm’s place. I think he’s Australian. He’s probably not English because he is so in touch with his feelings. According to Murph, Diana Spencer was “a selfish simpleton and a tart”—and as for anti-war protestors: “[M]orons. Never have I seen such a sorrier pack of […]

Never mind testing children for the use of recreational drugs. How about testing them for the use of recreational grief? “Ooh evil BushHitler is going to kill all the little Iraqi children so he can steal their oil. We have to bunk off school to stop him!”

…can be thanked for this late Valentine’s Day story.

There’s a deliciously nasty anecdote of twisted sisterhood over at Casual Savant this week.

Today I’ve got to deliver my revised talk for that presentation course, but my preparations have been disrupted because I have just found my long-lost brother on the Internet.

When I was an undergraduate I spent my weekends fending off aggressive winos as I worked behind the counter in an edge-of-Oxford corner shop. A lot of my contemporaries would spend theirs flitting down to London to party with their pals. Ten years after graduation I started to earn enough money to live that kind […]

The crazy kids at Jinx Magazine specialize in what they call “urban exploration”: going places in cities where they shouldn’t go. They value “anti-totalitarianism, humanism, and unnecessary risk-taking”. So that’ll explain why this entry won their “Best Photograph” competition [warning: large image].

A busy weekend, what with Airport‘s lovely Christmas party and much flitting about London. I had a superb lunch with Sonya at The Triangle restaurant in Crouch End—a Moroccan “fusion” place. I remarked that, even in the daytime it looked like the sort of venue where they knew how to party and this review seems […]

My car-sharing partner on Campus was pretty skeptical when I started enthusing about the article with this title I found on the Web. She isn’t a nerd. I must warn you that it is long and (surprising, given the author) poorly formatted for screen reading, but I think it is full of insights, some I […]

Maoi wrote looking for insights into the English lack of ease with affection. It’s unfortunate that she has (like many of my international friends) mainly been exposed to the spawn of the English upper-middle classes. To get a better handle on these types I recommend that she watches this film and this film back to […]

Home at quarter to one in the morning to a dinner of Ritz biscuits. Anyone would think I was over-worked. Sorry for the lack of ‘Blogging. Leasey has promised us exploding penguins tomorrow. I mean today.

You will not be surprised to read that I was into Dungeons and Dragons when I was at school. This Macromedia Flash film begins with a joke about D&D being the gateway to Satanism and then turns into such an accurate recreation of a typical game that I recommend you simply pass it by—unless you […]

I grew up in a miserable, violent, bigoted dump called Tamworth. Knowhere was originally an online community for skateboarders with information about places for boarders to hang out across the country. Now anyone can use the site to comment on any aspect of local life across the UK. Appropriately The pages about Tamworth are full […]

It’s hotter than southern California, but the grotty toilets are enough to reassure me that I really am back in Britain. A curiosity of two-leg flights is that you keep your seat while the identity of your neighbour changes. From LA to New York it was a woman who organizes promotional events for HBO; from […]

Universal City, Los Angeles, California: I am in the lobby of the Universal City Hilton, wandering around looking for its seafood restaurant. As usual, I am dressed in black, albeit with a blue T-shirt on underneath my black cardigan. Yes, I am wearing a cardigan; it is the middle of what the local news stations […]

Dad, if it hasn’t already been reported on that infernal televisual contraption, you should print this one out for mum—it combines bingo, grannies, and a great opportunity for righteous indignation.

There are a lot of things I love about Britain. Some of them are a surprise even to me. I remember returning from work trips to California, Arizona, and southern Italy, a year or so ago and being overwhelmed, by comparison, with the green soft beauty of this country’s landscape. One thing I hate about […]

Every few months I have to go into a “sports” clothing shop, push my way through terminally unathletic people in Russell Athletic sweat shirts, step around pot-bellied blokes in Nikes who are unlikely to “just do it” or (anything else) any time soon and ask that question, the question that will penetrate the cookie-cutter hip-hop […]

Today the doorway to the Co-op supermarket was guarded by a six-foot pig and a six-foot bumblebee. They were collecting for a children's charity. To their credit (and in typically ethical Co-op style) they made no attempt to press me for money; as if their looming blank stares weren't intimidating enough. I wonder how many […]

Hostilities have broken out on a noticeboard at work. Just before the outbreak of the real war, there was a pre-emptive strike: someone posted an emotional article by Ann Clywd, a Left-wing Labour MP and long-time campaigner on behalf of Iraqi exiles, justifying military intervention by describing atrocities committed in Iraq under Saddam. This was […]