Last year, Robert Birming called for us all to share "The text that appealed to you most during the month, for whatever reason." and, thus, Fabruary was born. My pick for this year is Sophie Koonin's "Stop generating, start thinking". Sophie is a much better writer than me and has articulated a lot of my thoughts...

Manchester, UK. Late 1999; I don't recall the exact month but it was post-September because the Freshers had arrived. The Roadhouse was legendary for its low ceiling dripping sweat, loud speakers, and knee-high stage — a truly intimate venue. Cyclefly were playing and the crowd were ready! Touring "Generation Sap",...

When the chief suspect in the disappearance of Áróra's sister is found dead, and Áróra's new financial investigation leads to the street where her sister was last seen, she is drawn into a shocking case that threatens everything This is the final part of a five book series that I've been reading now since 2022,...

16th February - 22nd February 04:00 — woke with a terrible thirst, mind racing with fever dreams. "unplug your phone, cable may be warm" warns my phone. the cable is cold, the water is tepid, the night is long I may be at my most poetic and most dramatic at 4am! One of my favourite things about living somewhere flat...

I can be a bit of a curmudgeon and focus on the negatives when I feel the pressure. I know it's not good for me to get into that negativity spiral so reflecting like this is important. So, without further ado, here are some things I have been enjoying lately. Snowdrops brightening the shadowy spaces under hedges My...

Area 11 is fronted by "Diggy Hole II" vocalist, Thomas "Sparkles*" Clarke who sounds so much like Frank Turner I had to check he wasn't. Inspired by anime and J-Rock, this Nottingham hard rock band throw out high octane pop-y inoffensive rock songs that aren't pop-punk, hard rock, British indie, or heavy metal but...

I devoured this said V.E. Schwab in a jacket quote either carefully written or carefully chosen because it references consuming. There is a secret race of creatures, the eponymous Book Eaters, that look like humans but are nourished by the words and ideas they osmose when they literally eat books. It's a little...

In the web design sense, "breadcrumbs" are the navigation helpers on many websites that show you where you are in the site — a path from where you currently are, back up the folder/URL structure, to the homepage. The terminology comes from the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel where the titular children are left to...

9th February - 15th February My phone vibrates quietly on the desk near my left hand. I put down my tea cup and pick it up. There is a local weather warning for snow. I shrug; there have been warnings like this recently that came to nothing and, besides, I'm warm indoors for the forseeable. I dismiss the...

Not to get all hipster but I got into Charli XCX from being very tumblr online when she released True Romance. Her new album is the soundtrack from Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" which feels like a flex but one I'm here for! Album opener, "House", is my favourite track — it reeks of Kiki Rockwell...

Despite my good intentions, I still spend more time on my phone than I would like to. Actually, that's no surprise considering that it's such a powerful tool. niqwithq I have written on this topic before (quoting ava and discussing how smartphones are not the enemy) and my opinions haven't changed. Niq is completely...

In my job, we work with a lot of medical content that, for various legal reasons, cannot be public-facing. We are also very aware that the internet is, by default, very public-facing. How do we, as an industry, manage the access to sensitive information? There are three basic levels of "content"; Publicly available...