50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth

My second book in 20 books, 20 weeks is 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth (UK edition with a white cover) by The Earth Works Group. I can’t remember when I bought this book, or if it was given to me. As the title suggests, it contains some simple changes you […]

HTML 4 Unleashed

My first book in 20 books, 20 weeks is HTML 4 Unleashed by Rick Darnell et al. I bought this at a remainder bookshop (i.e. one which sells books that a publisher wants to clear) in Lytham St Annes for £10 in the late 1990s. I taught myself HTML from this book, which at over […]

20 books, 20 weeks

There’s a hashtag on Mastodon, #20Books20Days (often in combination with #bookstodon, which I follow), the rules of which are: 20 books that have had an impact on who you are. One book a day for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just book covers. I’ve enjoyed seeing some new books through my timeline, but I […]

Goals for 2024

2023 has been a pretty rough year – I’ve had several health problems (still making my way through the NHS system), lost a major client (a natural end as there was no longer enough work to justify reserving my time each month), and have lost touch with some people. For most of the year I’ve […]

250 Who

I have written a lot of Doctor Who reviews over the last few years, mainly for podcasts that I listen to (both have mostly finished their classic stories now). I am gradually uploading them to a new site, 250 Who (because they’re 250 words or less). Let me you know if you have any thoughts […]

Book series to read

This year in particular, I’m trying to be a bit more focused in my reading. There are a bunch of book series that have been on my ‘to read’ list for a long time which I’m looking to make progress on. Chronicles of Narnia: I used to read this with my Mum when I was […]

Goals for 2023

2022 has been another mixed year – I had some things go spectacularly well and other things fall apart. I’ve concentrated on clearing out dead wood, both physical objects – such as a books I’ll never read – and digital items such as old websites. I’ve got far too much stuff in my life and […]

Ancient History UK

I recently moved all of my Ancient History (Roman and Greek) resources to a new website, Ancient History UK. It’s still a work in progress, and I’m planning to add the following over time: Places to visit in the UK, e.g. Ribchester Roman Museum Groups to join, e.g. the Classical Association Resources for topics – […]

Goals for 2022

2021 has been a mixed year, with some major ups and downs. Hopefully 2022 will be a bit smoother! This year’s goals were: Read 50 books: I’ve read 60 books this year (down from 79 in 2020) – success! Launch at least one of my side projects: Minimal progress on this due to other things […]

Public speaking in lockdown

I’ve given lectures, talks, and taken part in discussion groups during lockdown, and the experience has been very different to in-person events. For me, giving a talk is more like appearing in panto or performing stand-up than recording a TV series – there are jokes, sci-fi references, provocative comments (e.g. PHP is the best programming […]