The Word Hoard

Where were you when Arsenal won the league? It feels so bizarre to win the league on a random Tuesday without having even kicked a ball. I knew that we could win the league last night, but I didn’t really feel it until I was sat eating dinner with my family and saw that Bournemouth had gone a goal up after forty odd minutes. We watched an episode of Good Mythical Morning and I just kept my phone…

This is a list of things you can do. A lot of them are things I do. They might help. They help me.  I got this idea from Milan Cvitkovic, whose list of things you’re allowed to do is great and contains links to lots of other, similar lists, most of which have at least a few good ideas in them. This might smack of self-help. I have told you about my weaknesses.  Tell someone when you notice…

It’s been a year where I’ve only made fleeting progress on the things I really want to be working on, if I’m entirely honest. That’s fine. Not every year can be a banger. Sometimes you just survive, and learn nothing.  I’m really wary of making resolutions now. At least, out loud. I want to write and read as much as I can; that never really changes.  I have a hard time making new habits stick,…

Nothing ever worked for me as a conversational gambit better than two beers, but unless you are very very careful in how you go about it, two beers is not something you can do at work.  You can, however, talk about the football at work. You can talk about the football anywhere. People expect you to talk about the football. Oh sure, there’s the weather, but that only has so many legs. Now, how…

I don’t wanna Every time someone tells me to just get AI to do it, I want to scream.  If AI was just an ocean-boiling plagiarism machine, I wouldn’t want to use it, but it’s not just that.  You’ve seen the studies about how using AI makes us stupider. I won’t link them, because it’s almost besides the point; if you’re all-in on AI then whether something is a fact or not won’t matter to you,…

Stop Apologising Sorry it’s been a while. I think I lead with that in my last post, too. Sorry for repeating myself. I promise this won’t turn into one of those blogs where someone posts every six months just to apologise for not posting and to say how crazy their life has been. I promise I will abandon this blog sooner than do that. Or just make one substantive post every two years. I have no…

If you follow me on my socials (please follow me on my socials), you will have already seen that the other day I was awarded third place in the Deepings Literary Festival short story competition for 2025. This year their competition had three prompt images, and one of them portrayed a building that I recognised. A story instantly formed in my head, and I just had to write it down.  I very much…

I’m sorry for having Star Wars opinions. I had always had them and have just bothered my friends and family with them kept them hidden. Feel free to skip this one. Spoilers throughout, naturally. I was talking to a friend the other day and he said, “There’s nothing like good Star Wars.” Andor is good Star Wars, possibly the best Star Wars. I still need to think about it but I’m pretty sure it’s…