Bubbles
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Ted Chiang I read this short story in a day. It describes the interactions with an alien species' brief stopover on Earth and the efforts of linguists and scientists to communicate with them. In particular it covers one linguist, going...
What caught my eye this week. Weekend Reading – featuring the week’s best money and investing articles from around the web – can be read by any logged-in Monevator member. Alternatively please subscribe to our free email newsletter to...
When the missus is out of the house for a few days, I sometimes get the good ol' Wii out of storage and hook it up to the TV in the living room. My wife dislikes the mess it creates, and actually, so do I. But every once in a while I...
My writing elsewhere ▷ I’ve been thinking a lot about what happens to software engineers when agents write all of the code. I think that they become actual engineers. I think what we’ve been all along is software fabricators and...
Happy weekend! With my birthday coming up on Thursday 20th, this is my last push to tidy up my TBR a bit ready for birthday books… Wish me luck. Books acquired this week I’m still trying to whittle things down so I can get books for my...
Sometimes you just gotta look up. Highly underrated point of view. 👀
We’re back in Aberdeen after a brilliant mid-week break at Glen Dye. I’ve been sharing photos and writing about our experiences all week but I thought I’d give it a more thorough review now we’re home and I can reflect on the experience....
There is something wonderfully cheeky about building an entire musical around a man who has already spent decades building musicals around himself.Created by musical comedy duo Flo & Joan, One Man Musical takes aim at one of British...
Blaugust is an annual blogging festival in August where the goal is to write a blog post every day of the month. A short Saturday break from my Python series to talk about Saoirse Ronan. She's quickly become one of my favourite actors...
Yesterday, I found a comeback post after a 14-year pause. 14 years! OK, I didn’t read the full post. Maybe the author explained why. But it made me think of my burnout story: Work burnout made me stop exercising, eating well, and...
I have long respected those artisans, modellers, artists who master not only the application of paint to reflect dirt, but who master sheen too, to create a model that just sings with colour. Texture, shadow and wear and tear implied by...
Conspiracy thrillers are rarely interested in subtlety.They thrive on momentum, on ever-escalating revelations and on the intoxicating possibility that everything is connected if only you can find the right thread to pull. Voloz...
Although the subject of robots becoming self-aware is something that we are all a little overused to right now (especially with Ann Droid, courtesy of the BBC), having watched Andy, I felt I had to share it for several reasons. Created...
Acting is one of the few professions where rejection is not an occasional setback but an expected part of the job description. Actors are asked to walk into rooms, perform confidence, absorb judgement and then return the next day to do...
I have cut down a lot on how much bottled inks I have. Mostly by using up what I have over buying anything new. Currently I have seven bottles. One almost empty, one close to empty. Three half full. Two full or more or less full. Funny...