// this should never happen

This piece is incredible (and depressing) - the highlight for me is the multiple men openly confessing that they didn't have the capacity to emotionally connect with a woman, but because she was hot, they used AI to reply to her. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

The kids' play farm we went to today decided to decorate the toilets in Halloween theme:

Bought a third copy of the Silmarillion that I definitely didn't need, solely because this (70s) edition has a gorgeous fold-out map at the end that was still in pristine condition.

When it comes to the media industry + AI, this post by @werd.io has really stayed with me: werd.io/evaluating-ai/ – specifically this line: "AI output should never be seen by an end user: they’re potentially useful tools to speed up someone’s work, but the end result still needs to be human."

How is Paul Hollywood so shameless that he can freely admit on TV that he's never tried Chinese chili oil? This is like a software engineer saying they've never used a keyboard. The man is brazenly basic #gbbo

Arranging collection time for your kid at a playdate is like salary negotiations with a prospective employer: "What time should I pick him up?" "Oh, whenever's good for you!" (come on, someone needs to say a number) "Er, is... six... thirty... ish... okay?"

If you're using MacOS Tahoe and continue to find yourself wondering where the volume/brightness UI went when you press the keys, may I recommend this app: github.com/dannystewart... (why on earth did Apple think moving them to the top right was a good idea)

Whichever kid came up with this deserves our applause and respect: www.daysoftheyear.com/days/transfe...

Is everything all right in France www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

All trains out of Euston are fucked. Got told to go to Marylebone. Got there and all *their* trains are fucked. Hundreds of us stood behind crowd barriers. Then a train arrived, someone moved a barrier, and suddenly every passenger pored through the barricades like the Uruk Hai at Helm's Deep

Nice to see the Birmingham Mail following up a genuine scoop by @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social here... but it looks like they accidentally forgot to link back to the original Dispatch piece that broke the story! What an unfortunate mistake. www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midland...

Excited to introduce Vibes from Meta. Eat your slop, piggies!

I'm enough of an introvert that there are some cafes and restaurants that I hugely enjoy but have basically determined never to frequent again because the staff are so talkative and high-energy banter that it's just not worth the tradeoff

Overnight, the Online Safety Act has claimed its first victim. Imgur.com is no longer serving for UK based users. This means millions of embedded images on community forums and social networks like Reddit don't resolve for UK users anymore. A VPN is required to use these bits of the internet now.

Walked past a building site improbably playing this song earlier and I forgot how much of a banger it truly was: youtu.be/bbqVg_23otg?...

Your irregular reminder that, inexplicably, the first word of Another One Bites The Dust (surely one of the coolest songs ever written) is... "Steve".

I posted this screenshot of my Google Calendar "insights" after a month or two at my new job (fully remote and async). Doing a short talk tomorrow to a friend's employer which has a ridiculous meeting culture. What question would you ask me about how you could get your company to cut down on calls?

Noel Clarke had to represent himself for this court appearance because he can't afford lawyers any more, and he used ChatGPT to generate his response to the Guardian's legal team. news.sky.com/story/noel-c...

Briefly thought this was some kind of Taskmaster spinoff

If you write a "review" like this, your internet access should automatically be revoked for a week until you learn your lesson about being a functioning contributor to society.

I've been reading "The Lyrics" by Paul McCartney this week. He has almost no interesting insights into his most famous songs, besides a couple of well-rehearsed anecdotes that everyone on the planet has already heard. His choices of post-Beatles songs look ridiculous on the page. And yet...

Was just enjoying sitting down to work my first five-day week for two whole months when nursery called: kid #2 has a stomach bug and there's a 48 hour exclusion policy. Why am I destined to never catch up with my to-do list.

The untold story the pictures of this house tell (no chain, "in need of modernisation") has left me painfully intrigued: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/1...

Apropos of nothing, here's a quote from Tolkien I saw the other day (from Unfinished Tales) describing how he approached translating the language of orcs and trolls in LOTR:

I first came across Russell Brand 20 years ago when he was meeting young, far right politicians in student pubs in Leeds and lampooning them: youtu.be/gVRHsczLJrY?... sad to see what he's become now.

Was just looking at my bank account for last night's celebrations and congratulating myself on only spending £4 at the bar the whole night, then I remembered how much we spent on the entire day

Getting married* tomorrow. Used the majority of my redundancy payment from my last job to pay for it. When life gives you lemons... (Or: the best revenge is living well) * Okay, a civil partnership, but it's basically the same except the council have to check our song choices aren't religious

This. And especially the idea that the UK's foreign policy may now be directly influenced by Angela Rayner's stamp duty arrangements.

This is a deeply reported, heart-pounding read Gift link ⤵️ www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/u...

Passed my six month probation at GitLab this week and think I've finally conquered my fear of accidentally referring to it as "GitHub" – takes a while for the muscle memory to dissipate. Very happy to be here and working with a formidable team.

Has anyone from the Daily Mail ever read literally anything about North Korea

Just reached the final boss of the summer holidays: my kid was supposed to go back to school tomorrow after six long weeks, but the school just emailed to say that someone broke in to an adjoining building and stole some pipes... and those pipes supply water to the school. School's closed tomorrow.

In cute news: my two year old daughter pronounces it "quenguin" 🐧

I regret to inform you that—

On the train home again, half cut with a can of wine, and staring rapt at the rows of houses and apartments blocks lining the edge of the railway line. Who lives here? Where does this London go when the train passes by and leaves the terraces in its wake? Who calls this city home, I ponder, pissed.

Travelled four hours (on four trains) for a wedding today and about to make my entrance. It's incredibly humid, I'm wearing a suit, there are football fans everywhere and I basically just need the wedding party to register my appearance so I can loosen my tie and unbutton my collar 🥵

I released my second album of singer-songwriter / indie / folk -inspired music at the end of last year, so here's my semi-regular plug for you to listen to it: open.spotify.com/album/59sDve... Got a follow-up EP in the works (he says, optimistically). Give it a spin!

Saw a bloke at a children's play centre wearing a fucking Vim t-shirt today. I get irrationally angry when anyone makes me think about software engineering things when I'm not at work. I blame @davidrapson.bsky.social for radicalising me like this.

Had a rude prawn cracker today.

I love Tolkien because he uses clever yet relatable similes which are in no way just repeating pretty much the exact scenario they're describing:

Love this. Government policy is now "JUST KEEPING ADDING AGE VERIFICATION" all the way down. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Well this was a fantastic edition of @greenmanfest.bsky.social last week. Best weather we've ever experienced there and the kids loved it. More importantly, so did my mum, whose spirits couldn't be dampened even when we waited in the car exit queue for 2 hours to leave yesterday.

Taking both kids (2 and 6) and my mum (63) to a festival today. The kids are seasoned pros but it's my mum's first one ever - helping her cross something off her bucket list. The weather forecast for @greenmanfest.bsky.social is sunny and we're very excited.

My son just made friends at the park with a fellow six year old who sat down and told us how his family moved here from Ukraine. He described seeing the body of a 1 year old during the war, then quickly pivoted to telling us how he hates eating gravy now he's in England.

Took the new bike out today for a first proper ride and although my fitness is absolutely shot to pieces and I struggled up every hill, there's just something absolutely magical about *riding a bike*, especially on a sunny day with quiet roads and the promise of a bacon sandwich halfway through.

My six year old son has been away all week at my mum's house (she doesn't live nearby so we almost never get this kind of parenting respite) and although I've been having the best sleep of my life since approx 2019, it's like a piece of my soul has gone missing and I can't relax until he's back.

I want to hear the song of the fatberg whale www.itv.com/news/meridia...

Been reading Madame Bovary and I think this is the first time I've truly understood what people mean when they say you have to read a book in its original language to appreciate it. The English text is so incredibly beautiful and lyrical that I can only imagine how perfect the original French is.

Getting married* in a month and my six year old has chosen today to lose his front tooth. Can't wait for all the photos of him looking precocious in his tiny suit. * actually it's a Civil Partnership but it doesn't have a very good verb does it