Year: 2015


  • Regression Analysis

    For the past few years I’ve been running my ‘One-CD-a-Week’ campaign. It started out as a way to limit my music purchases, which were threatening to get out of hand, thanks to all the great music that was being released. But then some weeks last year (2014) I found myself desperately trying to find something that I wanted to buy, when nothing really grabbed my fancy. So in 2015 I decided to just abandon that philosophy and go back to buying what I wanted when I wanted it. Now it’s the end of the year, I’m looking back on what… Read more


  • Netflix and…freak out

    I’ve never really bought into the whole Netflix thing. Partly because I refuse to pay to stream stuff that is already available on demand (which most of Netflix’s (non-original) content is), and partly because I just don’t watch enough TV to justify it. But my two eldest have become avid users – my daughter mooching off a friend’s account, and my son paying for his own subscription – although as I am his only source of income I guess I was really paying for that, anyway… But in a moment of weakness, I decided to get a Netflix account myself,… Read more


  • About 30 years and a plastic cover to you, chief!

    I’m regressing. For the past several years I have resolutely continued to buy CDs, even though I very rarely play them – I just rip them to my home server and stream them from there (plus load the MP3s to the 128gb removable SD card in my Blackberry (suck it, Crapple fanboys!) so I can listen to them at work). I know I could just buy the MP3s and save myself some money, but I like the tangibility of CDs. I’ve also never bought into the idea of ‘buying’ zeroes and ones that sit on ‘the cloud’ somewhere (here’s a… Read more


  • Gym? Rats!

    I don’t really like to say it out loud, but I’ve started going to the gym and working out a bit more regularly. It’s not that I’m embarrassed to be doing so, it’s just that I don’t like to give my body too much advance warning of exercise. I like to surprise myself. I don’t even like to stretch or warm up, in case that gives away my intentions. The way I look at it, if I get mugged, or my GF gets her bag snatched in the street, I’m not going to get much notice of that. And if… Read more


  • Catatonic

    I’m tired. Not just that tired-to-your-bones, only-death-can-remove-this tiredness that seems to creep up on you in your ’40s (although I certainly have that, too), but actual ‘I really need a good night’s sleep’ tired. The kind of tiredness you get from staying out really, really late and doing something fun. But of course I haven’t been out really, really late and doing something fun – it’s been so long since I did that I’ve all but forgotten how it feels. No, I have the ‘I’ve been up since 4 a.m. for no good reason’ tiredness. I don’t usually get a… Read more