Category: Life


  • “But what do I do with my old ’78s?”

    I just bought myself a new turntable (that’s a ‘gramophone’ to you, Grandad). My old one (an Ariston Q Deck) had stopped working (actually it never started working again after a 10-year hiatus in storage) and although I haven’t bought any vinyl in years (not that anywhere sells it any more even if I wanted to) I do have a sizeable collection of vinyl albums (also fresh out of storage) that I didn’t want to give up on just yet. Finding a new deck in the first place was hard enough. None of the high-street electrical / home entertainment stores… Read more


  • Devaluing the family jewels

    Yesterday, one of my schoolboy fantasies finally came true and I found myself naked on a bed while two nurses (actually, a nurse and a female doctor) attended to my nether regions.  Unfortunately, as I was in hospital getting a vasectomy, my fantasy rapidly came to a screeching halt – just about the time they stuck the first needle into my kibbles and bits. That said, the whole operation was done under local anaesthetic, was entirely pain-free and took less than half an hour from pants off to pants on again. Today, apart from feeling like I’ve been kicked in… Read more


  • “I have one word for you…plastic.”

    Outside of my office block there are a couple of uncomfortable-looking, ugly, grey concrete benches that seem to have been provided for the sole purpose of giving the smokers somewhere to sit during their frequent company-sanctioned absences from work.  Not being a smoker, I’ve never taken advantage of them, but now that the weather has warmed up a little, I thought I’d go and sun myself after lunch (and get skin-cancer at the same time I get lung-cancer from passive smoking…). As I sat down, however, I make a startling discovery – they are not concrete at all! They are… Read more


  • Protect Me I’m Stupid

    I work for a company that prides itself on its safety-conscious attitude. This is generally a good thing, but sometimes they can push it too far.  Case in point: I recently had a run-in with one of their over-zealous, self-appointed ‘safety enforcers’.  It was about 7am and I was just going into work.  I crossed the car park, stepped over the grass verge, and cut across the road to the building.  I’d barely reached the other side when a voice behind me boomed “Use the crossing!”  Admittedly, the crossing was only 5 meters further up the road, but this is… Read more


  • Ain’t Technology Grand?

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    I know I’m a whore for modern technology, but this is just outstanding. I’m currently in Fairfax, VA (USA) on a business trip. I’m typing this on a wireless keyboard that is connected via BlueTooth to my HP iPAQ 4700, which in turn is wirelessly connected to the Internet courtesy of the Marriott Courtyard’s Wi-Fi Hotspot. This blog entry is stored on the Talking Forest server (located in Norway, I think), and automatically inserted into the contents of the TechnicalAuthoring.com website, which is hosted on an entirely different server (maybe somewhere in California), and delivered to you via whatever technology… Read more