Mike had ended up alone, his family stripped from him by ridiculous accidents. A little voice had started in his head then, an unwanted, unbidden, unprovable, ridiculous rationalization of the events, a kind of conspiracy theory in his mind, a budding paranoia that someone was after him and his family. He knew it wasn’t likely to be remotely true, and that coincidences happen, but even so, somehow he’d found it comforting, in a way.
So when he’d nearly missed blending into the red paint on the grille of that truck, he had hatched his plan.
Be careful what you share. Information is a powerful thing.
“In those moments I realize how powerful a thing it is to be able to inspire this much trust. I become their confidant in no time flat, and they end up spilling everything out to me. Well, I’m sure it’s not everything. But sometimes it really feels like everything. And all this information is stuff I have the potential to use in awful ways.”
After a year looking for another job, and six months trying to settle outside Spain, I’ve finally made progress on both fronts. Also, I’m on YouTube now. Life’s looking up!
This is a story designed and intended to challenge our assumptions and try to help us see things from different perspectives, something it seems we have a very hard time doing in general, not just with regards to wildlife but also – and more critically, I believe – with regards to how we humans interact with one another. The following was recorded yesterday in the 1-2 kHz band by a top secret whale observatory off the coast of Baja California. It is thought to have emanated from somewhere between Isla Cedros and Bahía Tortugas. Doppler shift analysis of the transmission […]
A poet with a Heart of Gold I met Dlvan three years ago in a Facebook writers’ group, before either of us had published anything. Before I detail how we met, I do need to establish a little bit of context. I’d already written a few chapters of a novel project that I have, but I’d also started planning another, rather different kind of “novel”, one that I felt would benefit from having a variety of points of view and contributors (I won’t detail why here, as it would spoil a fair bit of the concept of that book.) Anyway, […]
After reading “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, one has to wonder how nobody was able to do anything when Earth was doomed… Here’s the answer!
When new logistics concerns came and interfered with my plans, I needed a backup solution. Meanwhile, I took on a writing challenge and learned valuable lessons from it.
Travel, Poetry and Introspection They say that bonds forged in the fires of adversity are among the strongest in the world. That’s definitely true of my friendship with Filipa. We met while living together in a shared apartment in Lisbon, Portugal that was a hot mess of a place, you know, the kind nightmares are made of – only without the actual gore. From messy housemates to crazy housemates to a nutcase landlord to a single fridge for 7 that never worked right, we had a lot to put up with, and… well, you can imagine… It was a mess. […]
Life Back to Normal (Kind Of) Wow. It’s sure been a strange few months, hasn’t it? First we were all locked into our homes to avoid this annoying virus spreading. Then little by very little we were able to open up again, go out and get our lives back. In Madrid things opened up fairly slowly, even compared with the rest of Spain. But now it’s supposed to be back to what they call the “new normal”. However, clearly something’s up because Barcelona first, now Madrid have had to reimplement some extra measures in order to avoid having to resort […]
Over the past couple of months I’ve been mostly on lockdown at home, hardly going out at all. But that hasn’t stopped me from going into a relapse of my earlier depression. On the plus side though, I got inspired to write about learning languages!
Curing or preventing language trauma isn’t just about setting a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere, it’s also about helping the student work on the language in the most effective way possible.
Learning a language is an eminently practical exercise. Find out a simpler, much more manageable approach to languages, as well as convenient tips on how best to practice them.
An exploration of social perceptions of beauty and its impact on reputation, from the point of view of a fictional character well placed to speak of it.
35 years. A meaningful number but a birthday presenting a great opportunity to reflect on my life, past, present and future.
Mike had ended up alone, his family stripped from him by ridiculous accidents. A little voice had started in his head then, an unwanted, unbidden, unprovable, ridiculous rationalization of the events, a kind of conspiracy theory in his mind, a budding paranoia that someone was after him and his family. He knew it wasn’t likely to be remotely true, and that coincidences happen, but even so, somehow he’d found it comforting, in a way. So when he’d nearly missed blending into the red paint on the grille of that truck, he had hatched his plan.
Be careful what you share. Information is a powerful thing. “In those moments I realize how powerful a thing it is to be able to inspire this much trust. I become their confidant in no time flat, and they end up spilling everything out to me. Well, I’m sure it’s not everything. But sometimes it really feels like everything. And all this information is stuff I have the potential to use in awful ways.”
If you were given a time machine, what would you do with it? Me, I sit down and think about how, why and most importantly, whether I need to use it.
After a year looking for another job, and six months trying to settle outside Spain, I’ve finally made progress on both fronts. Also, I’m on YouTube now. Life’s looking up!
This is a story designed and intended to challenge our assumptions and try to help us see things from different perspectives, something it seems we have a very hard time doing in general, not just with regards to wildlife but also – and more critically, I believe – with regards to how we humans interact with one another. The following was recorded yesterday in the 1-2 kHz band by a top secret whale observatory off the coast of Baja California. It is thought to have emanated from somewhere between Isla Cedros and Bahía Tortugas. Doppler shift analysis of the transmission […]
How does anyone get into writing, really? By picking up a pen or keyboard and working some kind of magic with it. But for me, it wasn’t just that.
A poet with a Heart of Gold I met Dlvan three years ago in a Facebook writers’ group, before either of us had published anything. Before I detail how we met, I do need to establish a little bit of context. I’d already written a few chapters of a novel project that I have, but I’d also started planning another, rather different kind of “novel”, one that I felt would benefit from having a variety of points of view and contributors (I won’t detail why here, as it would spoil a fair bit of the concept of that book.) Anyway, […]
After reading “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, one has to wonder how nobody was able to do anything when Earth was doomed… Here’s the answer!
All funerals are sad, but when revenge gets involved, this one is sad in more ways than one.
An outside yet still distinctly familiar perspective on our tendency to establish convenient double standards.
A dying woman begs her man to lie to her, and gets more than she bargained for.
When new logistics concerns came and interfered with my plans, I needed a backup solution. Meanwhile, I took on a writing challenge and learned valuable lessons from it.
Travel, Poetry and Introspection They say that bonds forged in the fires of adversity are among the strongest in the world. That’s definitely true of my friendship with Filipa. We met while living together in a shared apartment in Lisbon, Portugal that was a hot mess of a place, you know, the kind nightmares are made of – only without the actual gore. From messy housemates to crazy housemates to a nutcase landlord to a single fridge for 7 that never worked right, we had a lot to put up with, and… well, you can imagine… It was a mess. […]
Life Back to Normal (Kind Of) Wow. It’s sure been a strange few months, hasn’t it? First we were all locked into our homes to avoid this annoying virus spreading. Then little by very little we were able to open up again, go out and get our lives back. In Madrid things opened up fairly slowly, even compared with the rest of Spain. But now it’s supposed to be back to what they call the “new normal”. However, clearly something’s up because Barcelona first, now Madrid have had to reimplement some extra measures in order to avoid having to resort […]
My tried and tested recipe for a writing career. Absolutely delicious!
A schoolboy makes an unexpected acquaintance in a field who later goes on to radically change his life.
Over the past couple of months I’ve been mostly on lockdown at home, hardly going out at all. But that hasn’t stopped me from going into a relapse of my earlier depression. On the plus side though, I got inspired to write about learning languages!
It’s all well and good to learn languages in a better way, but what does one gain from it? A hell of a lot more than you think, actually.
Curing or preventing language trauma isn’t just about setting a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere, it’s also about helping the student work on the language in the most effective way possible.
When faced with traumatized students, how can we proceed to help them overcome this fear? First and foremost, by removing the pressure
Some possible reasons behind the counterproductive structuring of some countries’ language teaching systems
The actual characteristics and considerable consequences of counterproductive language teaching systems
Learning a language is an eminently practical exercise. Find out a simpler, much more manageable approach to languages, as well as convenient tips on how best to practice them.
In this introduction, I lay out how I came to be in a position to legitimately express myself on learning and teaching languages.
An unsuspecting man ends up the unwitting pawn of a scheming woman’s near-perfect plot. *Trigger warning: sexual themes*
A humorous exaggeration of the plan for Brexit, complete with reactions from world leaders.
Mickey Mouse is President-Elect of Hell and has to deal with a coup.
Unicorns never made the Ark, but they still survived and are now in hiding. Here’s how I found them.
A commando goes deep into enemy territory to sabotage their infrastructure
An exploration of social perceptions of beauty and its impact on reputation, from the point of view of a fictional character well placed to speak of it.
A look at the history of CAPTCHA tests
Sally’s successful second seashell-selling scheme.
Hybrid species aren’t all they used to be any more… A tastier story than you’d expect.
Exploration of the ins, outs and “whaaaat?”s of the Brexit referendum.
A piece about political correctness, hasty judgments and the lack of all kinds of perspective – and the gorilla that got caught in the middle.
A reaction to excessive paranoia.
When a fictional species of tiny blue fellas turns out to (possibly) be real.
A call to action in defense of the sleep-impaired around the world.
The scrumptious story of Egypt’s tastiest mummy.
The true story of this unfortunate species of bird.
I love the authenticity of this post! Authenticity rocks. Proud of you dear friend.
Thanks! 🙂 That’s the aim in this news category 🙂
I really like the layout of this page. It’s eye-catching and different.
Thanks! 🙂