Fifty years ago, humans set foot on the moon. It was, and still is, the most incredible thing to have done and unlike the vast majority of things we smart apes do, makes me proud to be a human. I don’t have anything controversial or even particularly insightful to say about this achievement 50 years…
I love gadgets and technology. I am thrilled at how I can do my job on a beach or in a pub. Possibly other places too, I’ll get back to you. On the whole I am pretty good with technology and am the go-to guy for a lot of my friends and family if they…
As I grow older and massively wiser, I am starting to enjoy the delights of a more structured daily routine. When I was younger I often didn’t go to bed until… well, any time between 2am and midday was the norm. Working freelance in journalism and live TV didn’t really help either. But now I…
I don’t know what has been happening with me lately but I have become something of a writing machine. It could be related to my pseudo-mid-life crisis that I’m not really going through. Whatever it is I have been powering through 1000 words a day on average. WARNING – what follows will only be of…
It was my birthday the other day and after a couple of decades of being pretty much the same level of awesomeness, I am noticing some changes as I get older.
Being a Brit abroad means I get asked a lot about Brexit. Which is always a joy. Working as a journalist and writing for an international university in Southeast Asia, I mix with quite an international crowd who seem baffled by the chaotic balls-up that has been the last three years. The fact that it…
When going to websites in olden times, you always had to click to shut down adverts that kept popping up trying to trick you by hiding the x button or moving it. Happily, thanks to ad-blockers, this is no longer such a problem. It is also why I no longer make any money with this…
As I hurtle toward my late forties I find myself at the prime age where one tends to re-evaluate life and find what is truly important. Or when you just decide to have a mid-life crisis. Both are kind of fun. I have been reading a lot of philosophy recently and find it absolutely fascinating….
Longevity is a slightly random thing to write about, I’ll admit. But I have been thinking about it a lot recently and it has been sparked by a couple of things. The first was a New Scientist issue that came out recently which detailed all the advances we are making toward longevity. And there are…
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch is a superb book that I highly recommend. It is the first of a series of novels that concern magic, occult, and weird-as-bollocks occurrences that happen in secret alongside our more tedious muggl- I mean, mundane lives. Which I will admit sounds like a lot of other things out…
Following last week’s article and the joy of travel websites, I was feeling inspired. I have many passions in life beyond travelling, drawing and writing but those three sound cooler and more cosmopolitan than comic books, games and low budget scifi, so I thought I would indulge my more artistic side. I was debating doing…
Travel writing, when done well, is a joy to read. It transports you to somewhere exotic, giving you a taste of the sights, sounds and smells of exotic foreign lands. A glimpse of adventure, reminding you that there is a big world out to explore and here you are, probably just wasting your time at…
I haven’t lived in the UK for a while now and somehow missed the entirety of the brilliant Toast of London. I accidentally came across it when picking an audio-book and it was recommended to me after having listened to Nomad by Alan Partridge. It was a good recommendation – if you like one, you…
I have struggled through life thus far using cheap headphones. Since my first Sony Walkman back in the primitive year of 1980, my audio experience has been somewhat lacking. At the start, I was 8 years old and was listening to tapes – sometimes tapes of songs recorded from the radio – so it was…
The latest movie from Quentin Tarantino, Once upon a time in Hollywood, is on the horizon and it looks great. My personal horizon is currently dominated by Avengers Endgame but it is good to have something to look forward to after that. It has a superb cast and a director who has yet to let…
I love a good debunking. Shows like Mythbusters and Adam ruins everything are fascinating and provide fuel to the sort of person who gets great pleasure from pointing out how commonly held beliefs and ideas are wrong. People very much like myself in fact. If you are like me then you probably already know of…
I bought one of these bad boys about a month ago. Quick tip – if you want a cheap one, go to duty-free in Singapore. As a tip, that is obviously of limited use but you never know. For the younger generation, I should explain that a ‘tip’ is what we now call a ‘life-hack’…
Obviously, the question of how many galaxies itself didn’t blow my mind but some of the concepts mentioned in this short video certainly made me curse in childlike wonder quite loudly in my local coffee-shop. Space is awesome and I mean that in a very literal way. For one thing, as this video shows, it…
Happy Christmas from all of us here at The Word of Ward! I hope you have a good and downright merry one. This year’s Xmas theme is robots.
If you haven’t heard of Honest Trailers then you have been missing out. They are brilliant. I should also apologise as you are inevitably about to watch a load of them. I keep meaning to go through them all again and pick out some highlights but sadly, I can’t be arsed. Generally, just pick films…