I wanted to stay in the EU. I am currently in France and frustrated that my time on the continent is now limited to 90 days a year. But… Not being in the EU doesn’t appear to protect me from their current tinkering in technology matters in ways that directly affect the walled gar … | Continue reading
I still get a rush of excitement just reading that sentence. | Continue reading
Started off with a couple of men from my current campervan site here in France, gathered round a big wooden post sunk into the ground. And then my neighbour, a little old man, who turns out is 91, joined in. It ended up there was quite a crowd, using all sorts of hammers and axes … | Continue reading
Alby’s not happy that I’m currently in the van in France. Can you tell? | Continue reading
Nicely written piece on the pleasures of AI relationships. | Continue reading
On my way down through northern France I passed through Brittany and found myself thinking of Band Of Brothers, which I just watched for the third time. I thought of all those young men who had survived the nightmare of the beaches and were now struggling against all the odds thr … | Continue reading
Very sad to hear of the death of David Sanborn, one of my favourite sax players and a big influence on my own style. I was lucky enough to hear him, and his band with bass player Marcus Miller, in an open air amphitheatre during the Antibes jazz festival many years ago. | Continue reading
Thank goodness we didn’t opt for a bigger van. We are currently on holiday in Devon which, for those of you who don’t know it, has very narrow lanes with very high hedgerows and often steep stone banks to them. The locals always also drive very fast so getting around is calling o … | Continue reading
For some reason bloody Jetpack isn’t picking up the YouTube embed but those of you with long enough memories will enjoy this great story about Archie. | Continue reading
All I want for Christmas is the ability to take notes on my Apple Watch. On my iPhone I can invoke Siri and say “Create a new note” and then dictate the note. But I can’t do that on my watch. The reason I’ve heard in the past is that in order for notes to […] | Continue reading
Visit the post for more. | Continue reading
A cracking walk in glorious weather with some testing moments to spice it up. | Continue reading
“There was an inadvertent mistake in the factory that manufactured the ‘Human’ line of products, and unfortunately it’s not fixable. They will all have to be recalled and taken out of service.” More here | Continue reading
There is a fashion these days amongst tech pundits to go on and on about how awful Siri is, but in my experience it’s not, it’s amazing. I use it all the time. I use it mostly through my watch, where I have Raise to Speak turned on so I don’t even have to say […] | Continue reading
“Can you really be ‘passionate’ about digital marketing?” I am really enjoying the articles in Unherd and this one in particular resonated. | Continue reading
On my walk yesterday I saw a beautiful little roe deer standing maybe 30 yards away in long grass looking at me with its ears perked up. We just looked at each other for a while and then I moved on. But it was still there on my way back and I spent longer watching […] | Continue reading
If I do the same walk over and over my brain tells me it’s boring, I’ve seen it all a thousand times. But this isn’t true. The walk is different every time. I’m different every time. At this time of year of course it’s in your face different with the explosion of greenery on the … | Continue reading
He’s not happy that I wouldn’t let him out this late so he’s now harassing me from the edge of my bath! | Continue reading
When Penny used to ask me “Can we afford to buy this?” in the past, we really had no way of knowing. Sure we might know roughly how much was in our current account, and might know roughly what big items we had to fund before we next got paid, but really we were guessing. […] | Continue reading
Visit the post for more. | Continue reading
I think it was Robert Paterson who first used “the intensity of the mundane” to describe the power of blogging. I still think the phrase captures what makes personal blogs different from the airbrushed realities of social media. Two bloggers who I think are great examples of the … | Continue reading
When we were about to trade our original camper van, Connie, in for our new van, Ritzy, I wrote about how emotionally attached I felt to the van, despite it “just being a thing”. What is interesting is how long it is taken to form an equivalent attachment to our new van. Don’t ge … | Continue reading
Based in Llanthony in The Black Mountains I did the ridges on either side of it on Monday and yesterday. Cobwebs fully blown away. | Continue reading
I’m not quite sure what to say about this book. It’s unrelenting, challenging and distressing. But the feeling of historical veracity makes the experience feel worthwhile. It gives you insight into what happened, why it happened and how it happened, which felt valuable. I was als … | Continue reading
My current reading includes large sections of dense academic arguments about language, nationality, race and tribal identity in the Caucasus, all with a view to determining whether thousands of people are in fact Jewish and therefore “OK”to murder in cold blood. I’ve gone on in t … | Continue reading
I am currently reading The Kindly Ones, which is a harrowing novel based on an account of Nazi atrocities during The Second World War. So far, the overriding theme has been the ridiculous psychological dances that the characters in the novel do to justify, or even just cope with, … | Continue reading
I know I am a biased, proud, Dad but I loved this post from Mollie about the joys, and benefits, of walking in a field near our house. | Continue reading
I’ve just been chatting to Helen Blunden about a novel I may be about to read and confessing that I have an issue with fiction – namely that “it is all made up”. Goodness knows why I find this such a block. I have no problem thoroughly enjoying films and TV series, but when I […] | Continue reading
Over the past few years I have become fascinated by our idea of a self, the narrative that we create about ourselves, a homunculus sitting somewhere behind our eyes that we feel steers our lives. But this narrative is made up. In fact we don’t exist as a separate self, we are a c … | Continue reading
Apologies to all of you who kindly commented on my post about Microblog. For some bizarre reason, despite the fact that you have all previously commented on the blog, WordPress decided they were spam! Hopefully now sorted. | Continue reading
I’m toying with the idea of moving this blog off WordPress. I get frustrated that I’d have to spend more money to do anything even quite basic with plugins for blogrolls etc. Any one reading this got experience with Micro.blog? | Continue reading
Truly remarkable footage, originally filmed by the Lumiere, brothers, and recently colourised and restored. H/T Garret Vreeland | Continue reading
I have just finished watching The Wire. 50 episodes in 16 days. Immersive doesn’t begin to express it… | Continue reading
I always used to feel that the best way to learn at work was in conversation with someone else who already had experience or knew what they were talking about. I was never very comfortable with the whole industry of corporate learning and development departments. I never really f … | Continue reading
Finally got around to watching Barbie with the girls last night. Throughly enjoyed it. What a beautifully made film. People talk about “wooden acting” but watching Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling managing to convey the impression of being plastic dolls was amazing. I loved the int … | Continue reading
People go on about how much more expensive Apple kit is, and sometimes refer to it as the Apple Tax. Well, I am sitting here, having decided to go back to using a laptop, using my 2010 MacBook Air. Yes, a thirteen year old computer that is still working reliably and able to do al … | Continue reading
Most of the time I’m an optimist about the future, but… (via Tracy Durnell) | Continue reading
Lovely post on blogging from Annie Mueller | Continue reading
Primary Menu The Obvious? Euan Semple's Weblog About I used to work for the BBC. I used to be a public speaker. I used to drive lorries. Now... who knows? Type your email… Subscribe RSS - Posts RSS - Comments Search Search Follow The Obvious? on WordPress.com Skip to content The … | Continue reading
I have started watching The Wire. (Yes I know, lots of you watched it years ago but I’m finally getting around to it.) It’s on Sky Atlantic and before every episode they warn you that the program “Contains strong and frequent language.” Lots and lots of words, one after the other … | Continue reading
… chatting to my bot about AI, its impact on culture, and who gets to decide what values it reflects. My book came up in the conversation so she had a look on Amazon… | Continue reading
An oldie but keeps coming to mind. Watch to the end. | Continue reading
Well, it’s not new and this isn’t our van, but apart from the colour of the seats and the electric roof, this one being demonstrated by Daniel is pretty much it. | Continue reading
I have had two of the most important women in my life reduced to tears today bullying, older men. One here and one in Australia. Give me fucking strength. | Continue reading
As I said, in my book, all we can hope to do is change the world one conversation at a time. It is becoming increasingly apparent that this is going to be true when we deal with bots as much as with humans. I made the mistake this morning of engaging with a bot about […] | Continue reading
I don’t really know why, but on my walk today it occurred to me that if the historical Jesus, who almost certainly looked like the stereotypical idea of a Middle Eastern terrorist, turned up at the door of a Bible-thumping, gun owning, fundamentalist Christian in the US, there is … | Continue reading