Back at the start of April I set myself a challenge to “celebrate” the three years of the blog’s existence: posting every day throughout the month. The plan was to publish thirty posts in total, with one eye on finally giving light to many of the old drafts that I’ve stored over the past couple […]
I had a pleasant surprise whilst scrolling through my Facebook feed yesterday when I came across a Plymouth Live article. Plymouth Live is the social media face of the local newspaper – the Herald – and perhaps the best way to describe its perspective and purpose is by highlighting its seeming addiction to “click-bait” headlines. […]
At the start of this month I set out a challenge to post once a day on this blog. This is something that I have not attempted before, with the average number of monthly posts over the past three years usually surmounting to four or five. And so, what have I learnt from the experience […]
Many people have their vices and their habits: drugs, drink, video-games, prostitutes, or many different other things. Mine, it seems, is the MCU. For the uninitiated, the MCU stands for Marvel Cinematic Universe, and comprises the twenty-plus films released over the past decade of various super-heroes. These include Iron-Man, Captain America, the Hulk, the Guardians […]
During the lock-downs of the past year I’ve enjoyed many listening binges of various artists on Spotify, including the varied career of Iggy Pop, the enigmatic and ever-changing Beck, as well as the lesser known (but excellent) singer-songwriter Will Varley. I first saw Varley play at a Frank Turner event at Falmouth a couple of […]
This post marks two weeks of uploading a post a day in my “Month of Posts” challenge (outlined in more detail here). Back near the start of April I posted about the end of the War World Cup series, citing the central reason to be my continuing uneasiness at seemingly trivialising wars. But whilst going […]
Last year I wrote a post – ‘Annoying Errors That Do Not Really Matter (But Somehow Do)’ – about the number of typos I found in a book. In the post I noted: …it must be admitted that these mistakes are very small and none of them were crucial in terms of understanding the main […]
This summer marks two years since I wrote and published a short ebook on Ralph Wilford. Not familiar with the name? Don’t worry, most people aren’t (including myself until I delved into his “rebellion” in more detail). I have previously posted an overview of Ralph Wilford, as well as uploaded posts relating to the process […]
I’m a week into my “Month of Posts” challenge and have so far managed to post every single day. It has been good fun: trawling through old forgotten posts whilst reflecting on blogging in general. I posted a few days ago about the problems caused by tags, of which this blog has many; moving on […]
When I started the blog back in 2018 I found the use of tags and categories very useful and appealing: I could neatly position my posts into a handy area on which to return to in the future. Then, as the months rolled by, I found that I had created a large volume of categories […]
Yesterday I posted my challenge from April 2021: a month of posting every single day. Well, it is the second of the month, and so here is post No.2. I was in the middle of writing of a post about the Anglo-Powhatan Wars of the 1600s with the aim of providing the seventeenth instalment of […]
Today this blog celebrates its third birthday – three years since the very first post on 1st April 2018. Over the past three years I’ve celebrated the anniversary in the form of a short post: in 2019 I mentioned how my blog had survived when the majority of others fail in the first twelve months, […]
For a while now I’ve wanted to attempt making a podcast or two based on posts from the blog. I’ve always been more naturally comfortable typing up my thoughts rather than recording them, even after a decade of teaching. However, lockdown over the past year has meant that teachers have had to embrace different formats, […]
So 2020 has finally ended. The wealth of memes on social media attested to the feeling of “good riddance” to the year due to the problem after problem over the past twelve months, principally coronavirus, the UK leaving the EU, recession, and the overall negative impact on society. But let’s say “hello” to 2021. A […]
During lock-down I have taken the opportunity to sort out my book collection – both physical and digital. This has resulted in a rather high “to read” pile of books: one is beside a book-case, whereas the digital pile has been uploaded to various devices to plough through. My eyes have been rolling down pages […]
A few weeks ago in early April I posted about this blog’s second birthday. I continue to be enthusiastic about the writing and posting, usually numbering up to 80,000 words per year. However, when it becomes to site maintenance I’m generally not as keen; aside from adding a logo and a couple of images last […]
Yesterday was the 75th anniversary since the Second World War in Europe ended. It was initially planned as a grand occasion, with the day being labelled a bank holiday and with thousands of street parties across the country. However, COVID-19 – as it has done with so many events – ended such plans. Yes, the […]
On 1st April 2020, this blog turned two years old. So, how about a celebration (of sorts)? I “celebrated” the first year anniversary of the blog back on 1st April 2019. Back then I stated that trumpeting a mere one year of history could be perceived as something quite minimal. However, the longevity of the blog, […]
