Keeping my death certificate stored conveniently on my phone for when I need it

This is your annual reminder that New Year's Resolutions DO NOT LEGALLY COME INTO EFFECT until January 6th.

Population per capita by U.S. state.

Play for Today: www.ntathome.com/nye

Spoiler: They used the money just as wisely as anyone else would, and it's so frustrating that this still isn't a common sense assumption to make.

While it's well-known that only one team has ever recovered from 0-2 down to win a series 3-2 (Australia in 1936-37), it's less commonly mentioned that no team has ever recovered from 0-3 down to limit the margin of defeat to 2-3. England have a chance to make history in Sydney.

Spouse bought tickets to the theatre without me, because they thought I'd said I wasn't interested in going. At least, that's what they're claiming I said. The play? ‘Gaslight’ … ilkleyplayhouse.co.uk/IlkleyPlayho...

Twixtmas board games in #Ilkley this afternoon — pop along to All Saints church any time from 2pm.

Today's philosophical conundrum: what does it mean for Argos to offer a 5-year guarantee on a hot water bottle that they recommend is replaced after 2 years? www.argos.co.uk/product/8651...

Maybe I've got unrealistic standards, but personally I don't think I'll ever consider something to be an ‘extravaganza’ when it consists of buying some printer ink. No matter how low the prices.

Radio 1 yesterday broadcast a DJ saying “From now until the big day …”. Today 6 Music thought it was New Year's Day: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/sched... And it's hard enough to remember what day it is tomorrow without Radio 2 claiming it's both Sunday and Saturday: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/sched...

13yo now has an Android phone. Setting it up demands a Google account. On my laptop, I follow instructions to accounts.google.com/signup to create a child account. Several steps in, Google insists on the child scanning a QR code with their phone … which they can't do yet, because no Google account!

Prickly feeling following Evert's service (11)

Me: i’m Autistic Them: Oh you take things literally Me: No that’s kleptomania

A parade of decorated tractors, a carol service with the Moornotes choir, and a drink in the Christmas teepees, including toasting marshmallows in their fire pit. Altogether feeling quite festive. #Ilkley

What's the first song in last night's #Strictly final? 0:32–4:48: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis... From the intro I was expecting ‘Sunchyme’, but it turned into something different — though still based on ‘Life in a Northern Town’ (which is a curious choice for a montage of London).

Today's UK Online Safety Act annoyance: I'm no longer allowed to view a (boring, technical, safe-for-work) screen recording *that I made* for a bug report, because the easiest way for the image-hosting service to comply with the new law is to give up on UK users: bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour...

Interesting to see the government doing something that few oppose — a minority in voters of all parties.

First time this winter catching a train to work in the dark. Though admittedly that's less about the time of sunrise and more to do with my mis-clicking and accidentally booking a ticket for an earlier train …

“Close in 7 h 42 min” — that seems less convenient for both users and the website than simply displaying the actual time it closes. And I don't trust me to add on 7-hours-something without being out by an hour …

Divining the window of when our smoke alarm battery was last changed by the supermarket logo on the battery: logos.fandom.com/wiki/Morrisons

But: it will take 7-12 days to get to me. And thén it needs to go to the UK. My question is : 1) could anybody who is in Spain right now order this item on Vinted Spain and send it directly to Ali ( Im vouching for Ali) OR 2) does anyone in The Netherlands travel to the UK in 7-12 days time 2/n

I think this is the most-niche I've ever been at NYT #Connections. I got green straight away. I still didn't know what blue was even after I'd randomly stumbled on it. www.nytimes.com/games/connec... #916

This card game claims to be “brought to life from TW3”, but I don't feel the satire and humour has translated well from the original, and David Frost doesn't feature at all: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/43...

Back on the @guestimators.bsky.social leaderboard; it's been a while: www.guestimators.com/quiz081225 Well done to those who got 10/10. I fell for the question asking about the top ‘cardinal sin’ for under-30s, which I presumed meant theirs was different to the overall answer. It wasn't!

This Captcha wouldn't let me through until I told it the bottom-right image is a crosswalk. As if doing these things isn't bad enough in the first place, I now have to re-enforce Google's AI's mistakes.

I'm resorting to hints for some of the previous days in my murder mystery advent calendar. The hints start with errata. Of 24 puzzles, that's quite a high proportion that that they've messed up:

The new LNER timetable from next week means Ilkley–London only has a 30 min change in Leeds, down from 35 — a small improvement. But … it also scuppers the possibility of sneakily doing the change in 5 minutes (on to the previous train), and ending up in London half an hour ahead of schedule.

Today's awkwardly phrased YouGov question. I can definitely change a *wheel* (the thing one does if a tyre gets a puncture). But I doubt I could change a tyre itself.

Another 39 on #PopMaster — what's happening? None for 3 years, then 2 in a fortnight! And no guesses this time. Somehow they were all things I knew (though I might not have remembered Salt-n-Peppa without the multiple choice).

The Nobel Prize committee should announce the World Cup winner tomorrow

My daughter left her Spotify account logged in on our TV while she did her DofE expedition back in April, so I did what any self-respecting dad would do. Payoff finally came today.

Spotify wrapped 2025: Funded research into AI military drones Allowed AI generated music Used Ghost artists Had a dodgy market share based model Didn’t pay artists adequately

Looks like the BBC's schedule is claiming that the King's speech at 3PM on Christmas Day this year will be a repeat? www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p0...

EBay: How likely are you to recommend this thing? me: 8 out of 10. EBay: We're sorry you had a less than optimal experience. I gave it 8 out of 10! That's a good score!!

I can't help but think this email subject from DHL eCommerce UK has too many words in it. And I bet that when the driver is asked about their job, they don't say “I work for DHL eCommerce UK”.

Nigel Farage was a racist bully at school but Rachel Reeves won the wrong chess championship so who can say who is worse?

Crossword blogging meant I didn't get to #AdventOfCode till after work, but I now have a Day 1 solution in #Vim keystrokes: :%s/\vL(.*)/\1⟨Ctrl+X⟩/|%s/\vR(.*)/\1⟨Ctrl+A⟩⟨Enter⟩ {O50⟨Esc⟩qaqqayypJxD@-zt:redr⟨Enter⟩@aq@add :v/\v(^|0)0$/d⟨Enter⟩ ⟨Ctrl+G⟩ Explanation: www.reddit.com/r/adventofco...

Today's Telegraph #CrypticCrossword has some great clues, including: Silicon Valley disposing of a creep (5) Field force to meet large alien flier (7) The hints and explanations include these pictures and 2 hidden songs: bigdave44.com/2025/12/01/d... Just ask if you want a gift link to the puzzle.

“It’s like Greenpeace announcing eco-friendly oil rigs.”

Perfect Tom Stoppard story from DTel obituary: His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”

I don’t know how many ways there are to say “Manchester’s economy is growing, so if we’re not going to do much proactive on infrastructure, can we at least not do stuff that’s actively damaging” www.theguardian.com/business/202...

It was generous of work to take us out for a Thanksgiving meal, and I'm glad I went. But that beefburger was not enhanced by having cranberry sauce and stuffing in it.

The Proclaimers tickets for Bradford successfully purchased in one tab. And in another tab @bellowhead.bsky.social tickets *were* in my basket, but now the Harrogate Theatre website is giving a Cloudflare error! Hopefully that means nobody else is buying them either ...

Why am I getting more insightful Budget analysis from the person who writes Dennis the Menace and Gnasher for the Beano than from the TV news?

"Dickensian"

“Traffic was bad this morning.” ”Yeah, there'smoregasboard roadworks on the high street.”

This page for a Fairphone 5 says in different places it comes with Android 15 and Android 13: broadband.yourcoop.coop/mobile/phone... So I asked which it is, and the chatbot told me it's … Android 14! Is it just taking the average‽

From a forum asking about giving up on watching TV shows — what does Peter think “second chances” means?

Disappointed that ‘The Guardian’'s interactive budget calculator only has options for cutting overseas aid or leaving it as it currently is, not for reversing previous cuts: www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-...