When I was younger, I had to go with my grandad to church. He was, what I used to think of as a hardcore Christian, that was until I had been exposed to Americans. He never missed a service, and I hated going.
All the excuses I could think of were saved up for the weekend to try to get out of it. I honestly despised going with every fiber of my being.
I guess one of the things you realise when you have kids, or you’re around a lot of them, is that they all have weird obsessions. You expect the usual superheroes, or horses or fire engines, but my daughter is obsessed with shoes!
She just loves them, and I have no idea where it has come from. Granted, she is disabled, but since she could crawl around, she always had a shoe nearby.
Since moving to a new domain and trying to put all the things I create together online, I’ve been feeling a bit of pressure. Granted, completely self-imposed, but a very real tinge of anxiety to be better at what I publish there. A noble pursuit but one that’s made me feel down.
Before I discuss these worries, let’s take a step back a bit and be honest. I’m playing pretend. In a world of writers, photographers and all around publishing masters — I’m not even small fry and the framing of this is important when discussing these types of worries.
There is no getting away from my love of photography and cameras. My favourite thing in the world is going somewhere, anywhere, and just wondering around pointing my lens at things. The simple act of doing so is like mediation to me, and nothing thing else comes close.
Occasionally, I shoot loads, sometimes I don’t. Occasionally, I get things I am happy with, more often they all go in the bin.
Damon Beres writing for The Atlantic:
In a market generally defined by boring hunks of plastic, Apple gained an edge through impeccable design that was actually less functional than most of the competition.
The iPhone got its foot hood in the market because it was Apple. They designed and presented it in a way that was theirs, and no one else could come close to the pull they had.
Each year, when the new iPhone is released, I feel the same emotions that I experienced the year before. The iPhone takes up a weird position in my life where I both want it and don’t want it at the same time. Unfortunately, I can’t open a box and remove the device from its unknown position.
I first observed this with the iPhone 12, but the new iPhone 14 pro has taken this to a whole new level.
My life online is often complex and filled with preaching advice that I don’t take. More often than not, that involves my use of an app or blogging platform. If you’re new around here I go backwards and forwards in just about everything and most the of words coming further down the page I have said before but still don’t really believe. My blogging habits suck.
For more than a decade, I have wanted to be a writer.
Over the last few weeks, I have come to realise how much time that I spend waiting for people. Islam sat in my car, just chilling and waiting for something to finish.
This is usually my view. Waiting for my son to finish school and walk to meet me. I’m not cool enough to be able to actually go to his school any more, so I have to sit in the car and wait.
Day two of being positive, and it has been a lonely one. In other circumstances my day might have been considered perfect, filled with crap TV, books and chilling out. I don’t feel ill per se (bar a headache and a bit of a cough) but I am completely drained of energy.
Despite my family checking on me and making sure I am OK, it’s not the same as hanging out together.
On Wednesday afternoon, I started to feel a bit under the weather. Nothing major, just a bit of a sore throat and lacking energy, but I’d already been for a run that morning, followed by loads of meetings, so I figured I just needed some rest. After taking some tablets, I headed to bed for one of the worst night of sleep I have ever had, and that’s where the fun began.