Don’t get me wrong, I’ve nothing against real background music, but if it’s (more…)

Quite frankly, such people, who are usually members of the Press, have no knowledge of what’s in everybody’s minds, and have no right to attempt to speak for “everybody”.

I think my feelings on this really hit home when (more…)

Many people would call that day “auspicious” or “significant”, because the things we do actually do happen on one specific date – you don’t, for example, propose to somebody across a time span of several days, as “popping the question” takes a few seconds at most.

But was it really that particular day that was (more…)

Most of them turn out to be nothing more than a novelty that gets tired very quickly, and so they get unceremoniously dumped soon afterwards.

But there is one free tool that I’ve had installed on my PC for a few years now, I use it every single day, and it really does save me loads of time, not to mention mouse-clicks!

It’s called (more…)

I’ve often stopped to wonder, though why specific songs or tunes are selected by what appears to be some form of internal jukebox (like an organic version of an iPod Shuffle).

Sometimes, it may be a song I’ve not heard for over 20 or 30 years, and, as far as I can tell, not anything I’ve even thought about recently.

I accept that one of the features of the human brain that still makes it so much more powerful than the computer is its amazing ability to (more…)

But although they’ve been around for many years now, and are a natural extension of books being read aloud on both radio and television, they don’t seem to have taken off to the extent you might expect.

I fully accept that for certain people, such as the blind and visually-impaired, they probably provide access to literature and entertainment that would otherwise be denied them.

But for those, like me, who are fortunate enough not to suffer from such disabilities, I’ve always found there to be something sadly missing when listening to an audio book.

(more…)

It never ceases to amaze me when I send an email to a company, asking a few simple questions, how few of them actually take the time and trouble to read and answer every single point.

Some may answer part of my email, while others don’t even address anything I actually raise, preferring instead to respond with some boilerplate BS that is nothing to do with what I really want to know.

As somebody who co-owns a company and who is responsible for almost all of the customer service, via email, live chat and telephone, (more…)

And yet, as I grow older, I find myself more and more concerned with the health of our planet.

But, having moved to a country that seems to be in a state of denial about issues such as global warming, I find it difficult to do as much as I’d like.

True, we don’t (more…)

If that is the case, then I’ve often wondered what my tastes say about me.

You see, in almost all of the examples I list above, the things I enjoy (more…)

This is especially true today, with special effects that would be unbelievable to both actors and audiences just a decade or two ago.

And yet, I’ve always found it difficult to forget that what I’m watching is just an illusion, and that’s because many programmes and movies make mistakes that jar and snap you back to reality.

There are three mistakes, in particular, that always have this effect on me.

(more…)