Tigers

I love this:





He's a white Bengal tiger at Six Flags in Vallejo, near San Francisco. More pictures of him here.

Reading lists

Since getting back to the UK, I'm totally distracted. I keep taking books out of the library only to get bored by them within a few pages. Perhaps this site (which I came across on Dan Germain's blog) will help remedy that.

The Northern Slopes of my Face

Got a job interview tomorrow so I'm shaving off my beard. Obviously I'm doing a strategic shave and leaving the 'tasche for a bit, which startled my dad and assembled company when they Skyped me midst-shave. My dad (who I think may have had a glass or two) basically spent the next 15 minutes hooting in laughter at my upper lip.

I think I look like Errol Flynn - the assembled company disagreed. 

Googling myself

I'm a member of two Ning social networks: A rather sober group that examines innovation in business and is mainly populated by besuited entrepreneurs, and an improv group that organises flashmobs and operates under the title 'Urban Prankster'. 

Guess which one crops up when you google my name?

Stupid internet

Gaargg! I don't think anything drives me more insane than random wi-fi connections that cut out suddenly just as I'm about to post a rather lengthy blog post. 

It's another half-hour of my life down the tubes and it makes me bloody mad! This, slow-walking people, and chickenshit bureaucracy will send me to an early grave.

(Apologies if you were expecting a sunnier post about play or something like that; this technological equivalent of dropping my toast onto the doormat has miffed me more than I expected - I'll get back to the good stuff soon).

Nietzsche quote

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." - Nietzsche

(nabbed from @creativedc on Twitter)

Michelle Obama in SF

After another day scouring the internet for jobs and coming up with freelance pitches, I was ready to head back to my uncle's place in SF for an evening restorative and maybe a gentle stroll round Noe Valley.

But on crossing Market St, I was held up while a cavalcade of police cars and motorbikes whizzed past, including one car featuring the smiling an waving First Lady. Yep, Michelle Obama was in town, and I'd inadvertently wandered into her armoured procession.

Apparently she was opening a play centre in the city and speaking at a San Francisco school about the importance of volunteering and community leaders.

According to the Associated Press article:

Obama talked about the importance of children getting exercise, adding that at the White House they've instituted "Camp Obama," which means the TV and computers are off until after dinner and right before bedtime — "Bedtime is early."

She also said the Obama girls play on a swing set that has been installed.

"They don't even know that they're getting exercise," Obama said. "That's the value of play and that's what we need to get our kids to do in this community — but we have to provide them with resources to make that happen."

So Michelle Obama in town to celebrate the very thing that's been scurrying around my mind for the last few months: the value of play, and how we can incorporate it into our daily routine. 

I'm glad that this is being taken seriously; encouraging children to play and getting members of the community involved can make a difference. It's a positive message to be sending out in an otherwise bleak era.

Improv Everywhere

One of the final things we did for last quarter's improv class was an 'improv everywhere' exercise, in which we wandered round campus improvising slightly surreal situations. I loved it for a number of reasons, but mainly because it was subversive but positive. Anyone who saw it was pretty taken aback, and some were keen to get involved. Whatever their reaction, though, it was clear that they'd just experienced something a bit out of the ordinary, which broke up the routine of their day. I definitely want to do similar things when I'm back in London. I'm certain this sort of spontaneity is fantastic for society as a whole.

Cassetteboy v The Bloody Apprentice

You've probably seen this already; it still makes me laugh:

The Great Outdoors

One of the best things about being based in California is being surrounded by some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet. I've managed to get out to loads of good places this year (Redwoods, Henry Coe, Desolation Wilderness, Tahoe), and tomorrow I'm heading down to Camp Nelson, just south of Sequoia National Park. The plan is just to hole ourselves up in a cabin with no phone or internet, and just chill in rustic splendour. 

It should be fantastic, and I'm really looking forward to doing a bit of hiking and manly outdoorsmanship. But because I'm a plonker, I'm actually a bit concerned about not being plugged into the net. I'm sure once I'm up there I'll be so happy that it won't even cross my mind, but at the moment I have visions of potential employers all frantically trying to contact me, while I blithely let all these golden opportunities go unanswered. Bloody stupid, of course; far better just to celebrate being off-radar for a while, and that's exactly what I intend to do.

Here are some pictures of Camp Nelson I found on Flickr (llllll1's photostream). It looks absolutely stunning.

If anyone's got some good suggestions for things to do and make while we're up there, drop me a quick comment. I'm thinking of building a wigwam.

Caution

With thanks to Sween (http://atsween.tumblr.com/)

End of days

A glorious day out here in Stanford. Unfortunately I spent most of it indoors, tinkering away on job applications, but I managed to get out for a stroll round the Dish with a coursemate, so not a complete washout. 

It's now got to the point that pretty much everything I do here will be the last time I do it, so I feel I should try to fit in plenty of outdoors time, getting the most of Stanford's greenery and the California sun. But I've got a world of crap to get sorted before being booted out, so it's more likely that I'll getting the applications in or shoveling stuff into boxes before turning in my keys. Not ideal, but there you go.

There is some good stuff happening though: a friend of mine's mum treated us to a rather spiffy Greek meal at Evvia, so I'm getting to drink from the graduation cup, even though my folks are back in the UK. And I think there'll be a few more parties over the next couple of days to celebrate getting through the year.

All in all, though, it's been a bit of an anticlimax. Unlike finals in the UK, where you work up to a crescendo and then flee the university with streamers hanging from your hair, the last year has been a sustained and intense block of graft. And now we emerge into an unsure market, with unemployment on the rise, and a selection of debts hanging round our necks. Plus we're being booted out of our flats basically the moment graduation is over, so there's not even time to enjoy campus. It just seems to have come and gone.

So tomorrow I'll don the gown I found outside the campus bookstore and head over to the ceremonies for the final push. There's the main effort in the stadium, which sounds like it'll last forever (it's the one where they read out thousands of names), and then the Comm department graduation later on. I might not go to the first one, if it really is as interminable as feared. But the second one should be interesting, and I'll actually get to pick up my diploma. So this time tomorrow I'll be Dan Walker Smith, MA (Stanford).

(The place to get the gowns was shut, by the way, but someone had balled up a faculty gown and left it in a magazine rack, so I left my contact details and nabbed it - I now think I'll be graduating in a faculty gown from the business department, which is a bit random, but might be better for getting a job).

Brainstorming rules

I'm in the d.school again - Stanford's design centre. It's my favourite place on campus - absolutely brimming with ideas and creativity. The whole place is structured to encourage 'design thinking' and the creative process -  they really understand how play can be used to stoke innovation.

I thought I'd jot down the 'brainstorming rules' that are set out in one of the shared spaces, before I forget. Definitely good things to keep in mind.

• Defer judgement

• Go for quantity

• Encourage wild ideas

• Build on the ideas of others

• One conversation at a time

• Stay focused on the topic

• Be visual

Here are some pics of brainstorming, as well, taken from the Hasso-Plattner School of Design Thinking in Germany. Great to see the creative process in action

Close to the Edge

Wow, that was quick. So we're nearly at the end - thesis done, bills paid, just graduation to go, and then I'm outta here. 

Seems odd now. A whole year here at Stanford. I'm still unsure how I feel about the place - lots of good and interesting stuff, but all of it diluted by busy work or bureaucracy. I feel like Stanford is so close to being awesome, but just needs a quick tweak here and there. 

That's part of the reason I'm sorry to go: I reckon if I were here for a couple more years, not only would I crack it, but I'd actually be able to instill a bit more fun for other people. 

KZSU, for example, is just crying out for someone to rejig it. The potential's there; we just need to turn it up a bit.

And the Comm department - what I could do if I had a couple of terms to tinker with that. In fact, I spent most of a run yesterday coming up with ideas to booster the thing. I'd tell the department about them as well, if I didn't think they'd just fall on deaf ears (or ears unwilling to pay, at least).

Maybe all this is a mixture of looking back on the last year and thinking how I could've made it even better. But I suspect what I'm really after is a project. I'm not sure it even matters what that project is - I just need something sustained to build from start to finish and make it fantastic.

Academic journalism is fine, but it's a bit piecemeal. Possibly the time's come to create something new that I can really get my teeth into. 

Bill Bailey

For a while I've been thinking about which celebrities I'd like to join for a pint. Bill Bailey is definitely one of them.

Street comedy

This last week has been a real eye-opener; at Bay to Breakers, I was surrounded by thousands of people who'd really made an effort to dress up and were having a brilliant time. It just demonstrated how much putting on stupid costumes can add to an event. Bestival, is one of the best festivals in the UK, and I think the fancy dress element has a lot to do with that (it's also usually got a wicked line-up and great weather). So I've been thinking about how important fun and play are as part of our everyday lives. 

Stanford's a pretty serious place; a lot of the students here are so concerned with getting on the corporate ladder that anything but work just seems like a pointless distraction. The whole university is geared up to provide you with the best education for business or engineering, and you're expected to work bloody hard to prove your worth. 

So fun is distinctly secondary. But there are two notable exceptions; the design school and the drama department. They embrace fun, and encourage it as part of the creative process. I think that's why they're my favourite places on campus. I've loved improv this quarter, and learning design thinking has really changed my approach to problems. We've got accept fun as a positive element. It's OK to be childish and silly. In fact it's necessary.

I've posted some some pics below that have made me laugh recently, and totally demonstrate what I'm talking about. They aren't trying to make cash or any particular point. They're just having a laugh. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry summed it up in his dedication to Léon Werth in The Little Prince: "All grown ups were once children - although few of them remember it." Let's have some fun.

Scully when she smiles

I'd almost forgotten how much I love Gillian Anderson.

Sunshine in the City

I'm now up in SF. The sun is absolutely nailing us to the floor, so we've slowed life down appropriately. 

The last week was a good 'un: some interesting chats with NPR bods (Deborah Amos and Ellen Weiss - NPR's vice-head of news) and Neil Chase from Federated Media - and ex-New York Times editor. Usual stuff from both camps: news-production as we know it is dead, but there will always be a place for news-gathering. I'm not so sure, particularly when hearing it from people who've now left the journalism game. Isn't it a bit questionable to say you have faith, while at the same time clambering into a life-raft? Not sure.

I also managed to get quite a lot of work done this last week, which was pretty amazing, considering how much I'm focussed on the job-hunt and visa thingamy. The latest on that, by the way, is that despite getting the finances sorted, Stanford's health centre have now decided to make my life a misery. So I've got to so even more tests to prove I'm not a threat to the US (this is after the half-million forms and tests this time last year). Bureaucratic tossers.

On the good news front, I hit the town with my old mate, Jim Peck, last night. He joined me from Sydney, where it sounds like he's got a pretty sweet life. Maybe that should be the next destination for DWS.

It's also 'Bay to Breakers' tomorrow; SF's annual festival of dressing up like an idiot and running across the city. As it combines two of my favourite things, I'd be a fool not to get involved. So if I can muster the energy, I might head to a thrift store or two later to check out costumes. It is darn hot though; maybe I'll just sit in the park.  

Swift

Happy Cinco de M. everyone,

Just a very quick post to give you a fill in on the latest (in bullet format):

• US authorities are still happy to have me here, which is good news.

• Stanford draws slowly to a close (can't decide whether this is good news or bad).

• Few advances on the job front, but a few potential freelance gigs, which should be sweet.

• Improv is amazing; I thoroughly love it.
  

Other than that, more of the same: occasional excursions up to SF; the first of many wine trips; one proper mountaineering effort (Pyramid Peak - bloody incredible); and a lot of messing around on campus.

We've now got a pretty established supper club, meeting and cooking different shit every week (tonight, obviously, was Mexican). And I'm doing quite a lot of work with the Stanford stand-up society. 

But the main focus right now is improv. I just can't get enough of it. It's genuinely one of the most inspirational classes I've ever taken, and it's really challenging my way of thinking.

For example, one of the main tenets of improv is just putting yourself out there. Working with your partner, that is, to build a stronger narrative, and not just going for the punchline. This, I find, is pretty bloody hard. I'm always going for the punchline, even at the most inopportune moment. But this class allow you to not be the funny one, to just build on what your partner is suggesting, and allow them to be the one in control.

What's more, I'm less nervous about just putting myself out there. It's never really been a problem, but even outside of class, I now find myself volunteering for everything and stepping into the limelight much more than before, and I suspect the improv (or at least my desire to push myself as a result of the learning), is making all the difference.

Having said that, I'm a wee bit concerned about the next step after Stanford. Given the option, I'd be pretty keen to stay in the US. But I'm pretty certain once the year is out, that's my lot, Visa-wise. No word about jobs in the UK or Europe, but I'm sure something good will come up. I just hope I'm not being too optimistic. Fingers crossed, n'est-ce pas?

Back to it

I should probably fire this up again after an extended break hitting the Pacific Northwest (Vancouver to San Fran) and then Hawaii. Both trips were incredible, and easing back into Stanford has been relatively painless. Partially, I think, because I've been getting off campus a lot since returning, and partially because the stack of birthday cards awaiting me was a comforting cushion to land on.

I'll let you know about the trips in another post, as there's a lot to cover. In the meantime, a quick mention of the last couple of days, which have been fantastic.

Yesterday we headed to Six Flags, a theme park an hour or so north of San Francisco. It was like being a kid again; there was little or no irony as we threw ourselves onto the rides, and an unnecessary amount of high-fiving throughout the day. Heading back to Stanford, I managed to arrive about three minutes before I was due to be onstage for a breakdancing show. And after that a big night out in Palo Alto.

Today was the absolute opposite; I slept for about 12 hours, cooked breakfast, sauntered around campus in the sun, and finally ended up at a potluck dinner hosted by a breakdancing mate. Very low key and very chilled. Plus we stepped out to a random open-air film sesh in East Palo Alto. So all in all a good weekend. It's now bloody late, though, so I hover to my bed.

Stand up Stanford

A very quick one here 'coz I'm dog tired and have a whole day of interviewing ahead of me.

I had another go at stand-up today. Partly successful, partly not. It was the Stanford try-outs for the Rooftop Comedy's College Stand-up competition, so I figured I'd throw my hat in the ring.

I was first on, with a three-minute bit about Vegas I'd cobbled together over the last day or so. It went down fair enough - there seemed to be plenty of laughs in the right places and I didn't clam up, as I feared. In fact I was surprisingly nonchalant. I really didn't feel that nervous at all, and if I'd had a bit more time I would have happily stayed on stage, maybe trying some riffing with the crowd (don't get ahead of yourself, boy).

Unfortunately I didn't make it through to the next round, but I'm not too fussed about it, for the following reasons:

a) I bloody well got up there and did it, and I'm pretty happy about that.

B) Without sounding too pleased with myself, I really do think I was funnier on the night than at least three of the eight acts that went through. I suspect they had a lot more friends than me in the audience, and so got more votes, but I did OK for myself on the night. (Obviously this might all be crap, but that's what I'm telling myself at the moment).

c) I didn't talk too quickly. Amazingly considering my predilection for rattling through sentences at a rate of knots, I was reasonably measured in my delivery. I also stayed in one place and didn't use my hands too much. So maybe I can do this kind of stuff without coming across like a cocaine fiend.

d) It went OK. Yep, not great, but not terrible, and I can hold my head up at the end of it. With a bit more polish I reckon I can get together a pretty good set, and I've proved to myself that I don't get too nervous in front of (admittedly pretty kind) crowds.

A KZSU stablemate did make it through to the Cal match, though, so it might be a good excuse next quarter to head up to SF and catch that show.

I definitely want to do more comedy performances now: It's the only way I'll learn, and I think it'll give me a bit more discipline about writing funny stuff. I just need a way to make sure I'm in SF at least one night of the week, and that I'm definitely going to be on stage with new material.

T-minus...

Just had a good brainstorming sesh on the whole creative games thing. It's actually going pretty well. We've now got a distinctly amateurish prototype to show what we're up to, complete with activity cards, a sample website, an explorer's log, and stick-in challenges.

We got a few local kids to play with it today, and it seemed to work well. The main kid, Weston, was particularly taken with the whole dragon-slaying, sword-wielding element (which is my favourite bit too). He also tried explaining Bakugan to me, but it was a bit of a lost cause. Cool figures, though; spring-loaded.

Man alive I'm tired. It's pretty much the final week of term, so all the projects are due in the next few days. Basically it means I'm going to be sitting in front of a computer until I can get out of here, with the occasional mad dash up to Menlo Park to do some filming. But I'm very happy to be flying up to Vancouver this time next week. Everything I've heard about the city is fantastic, and I'm really looking forward to discovering Seattle and Portland on my way back to SF.

Portland's been on my radar for a good few years now - it sounds farking brilliant: lots of creative types, scaffy bars and greenery, with loads of zines and local microbreweries fueling the creative sparks.

There's also a slightly deranged, twisted humour about the place, best exemplified by Portland natives Matt Groening, Chuck Palahnuik and Katherine Dunn. It sounds amazing.

Yup simply cannot wait. And then a week or so of bronzing in Hawaii before hopping back here for the final stretch. Come on break; just one week away.

Oh, and I'm loving Rex the Dog's Bubblicious, which is playing in my headphones as I type.

SF and facial hair

Right, I'm spectacularly tired, so a quick one, I suppose. 

I've just got back from seeing Ben Taylor and his band at the Independent in SF. Not necessarily my type of music, but good fun nonetheless. 

Actually his support Eion Harrington was even better. Again, not my stuff particularly, but you could tell both he and the headliner were spectacularly talented and knew how to work a crowd.

The beard/moustache growing continues, with me looking more like a sex-offender by the day, but I quite enjoy wearing a beard, so if I can get through the bristly stage, I'll stick with.

OK, that's about all I've got at this point. More to come.

Apture

OK, built a sprout this week, which was surprisingly successful, apart from being unable to upload the thing. 

I chose to do mine on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, the BBC's antidote to panel games, which gave me an opportunity to listen to a load of clips and chuckle away to myself. It's a bit like having an awkward friend though - I want to explain to my American mates that it's really funny once you've listened to a few of them and know that it's just silly fun. But I imagine listening to Mornington Crescent for the first time would just be baffling and weird. Somehow I need to instill the radio culture of daft gags and piss-taking here. 

Another good thing was meeting the chap who set up Apture, a handy-dandy site which lets you check links without navigating away from the page you're on. Tristan Harris was his name, and basically it was like looking into the future; Minority Report or something. It's pretty amazing - I'll try to load up the next post with a few examples.

Other than that, little to report. I'm a bit concerned about the whole financial situation (mine, selfishly, not the world's). But I'm having a word with the financial people here tomorrow to see if we can work something out. Might be a bit of belt-tightening on the horizon, but I'm a big boy, and I'm sure I can deal with it.

Also lots of job applications coming up. Somewhat worrying considering the woeful state of journalism and the amount of people who're being binned from their jobs, but hopefully I can sort something out. If not, I'm sure I can work out a few back-up plans by the summer.

KZSU and public issues reporting

Quick post before I turn in. I'm still no nearer to finding my corrupt politician for one of my articles, but I'm hoping a day googling around tomorrow will yield something.

Friday was spent half in the KZSU studio and half tracking down the bad apples of Washington, DC. It seems that virtually every congressman and representative out there is in the pocket of special interest groups, but as long as they sit on committees that examine those groups' areas, they're laughing. I keep coming up with what I think is journalistic gold, and then having it shot down by my tutor, as their integrity remains intact as long as they're on the right committees. Seems like an odd system to me, but apparently it's all above board.

KZSU was fun as always. Fewer callers than last week, but still good. I'd be happier with a two-hour show, but there you go, you can't have everything. Three hours it just a bit of a stretch at this point when I've got so much on my plate, and as there are apparently all kinds of people clamouring for shows, it seems a bit mean that we've all got three-hour slots, when I'd certainly be happy to sacrifice an hour to someone else. 

Lots of good tunes though, and I managed to play out some requests over youtube, which I've never done before, so a nice little bit of progress. My sister Charmian tells me that my radio style is bizarrely unreflective of my own personality. I actually kind of know this, but it's interesting to hear it from someone else. I tend to let music be the focus, and only speak when I'm announcing what's coming up or what's playing out. So my task for next week is to make sure I talk properly for a good few minutes every couple of links. Not necessarily in a cheesy 'I'm so funny' way, but just a bit more than I'm giving out at the moment.

At some point I'll start putting the playlists up on this thing, as well maybe in another section.

OK I'm gonna hit the sack; lots of stuff to do tomorrow, including getting my stuff in gear for an NPR application, and later on the Beerlympics. Should be fun.

On PR

PR guru Corey duBrowa from Weggener Edstrom was speaking at Stanford today. Interesting chap, especially as he's essentially 'the enemy' for many journalists. Essentially he explained the game between public relations fellow and journos from his side. 

And much as it seemed he'd drunk the Kool-Aid of his industry, he seemed happier and more fulfilled than most journos I know. This might be because he's almost certainly paid about 10 times what your average reporter earns, and he's a laid-back fellow based in Portland. But it also seemed that he actually enjoyed his job, and felt he was performing a valuable service.

This is totally contrary to everything I've ever assumed about PR types. My take (which is obviously skewed) has always been that the industry is made up of frustrated journalists who've sold out and are now protecting the sinister bigwigs against the good.

I'm not sure I've changed my mind about that yet, but it was interesting to hear from the other side and step away from the exchange without the lingering thought that 'there goes someone who's well and truly ditched their principles.'

Other than that I spent most of the day catching up on sleep after another week of non-stop work. It's encouraging to think that David Cohn had the same drowning sensation when he was at Columbia, but it's still a bit of a bugger that the work never seems to stop.

I'm feeling a bit more comfortable with Final Cut Pro, though, after a couple of productive hours being walked through it by the ever-patient Dai Sugano. The next step is to make something I enjoy, so the whole process doesn't just seem like a slow and painful torture for the sake of it.

Which brings me onto Dr. Gurnalism; hopefully coming to a screen near you soon. The idea sloshing around is a slasher pic based on a disgruntled and psychopathic ex-journalist, who's picking off new media types in a particularly gory fashion. We're hoping to film it next quarter. But even if we never make the thing, I'm enjoying the process of brainstorming we've got going on at the moment - basically drinking beer and coming up with ridiculous scenarios. I love it.

Spotus, prisoners and professors

Howdy everyone. So here's what I got up to today: I went to an interesting talk from David Cohn, the chap who set up Spotus. 

Despite the fact that he's sickeningly young (26), he seems to have his head screwed on. We all know traditional journalism is going down the swanney, and there's a lot of hand-wringing going on from everyone who's worked in print media for the last 30 years, or anyone, like me and most of my programme, who hope to have some sort of job in the coming years.

So this is what Cohn's suggesting: a non-profit model where people pitch stories, others chip in for the funding, and after the story's been researched and written, it goes up on the site. The idea is that we get to choose with our wallets what goes up, the journalists get paid and to some degree justice gets done (if you subscribe to the idea that journos should be some sort of moral conscience, exposing injustices wherever they go).

I'm all for it. Not as a journalist (I'm not a big fan of the investigative stuff; I prefer breaking news very quickly), but as a consumer. How great would it be to think you have some input into what is covered, and you're not just a pawn in the big advertisers' game. 

It doesn't work for all stories, as Cohn admits, but it's great for the long-form stuff that America feels journalist should be doing; showing who's being screwed over and who's the bad guy. Power to him, I say. Seemed like he was doing it for all the right reasons as well - wanting to make the world a better place, rather than just line his pockets.

I also spent a good hour or so brainstorming my design project. Looks like the prison rehabilitation idea isn't a goer, as there's not enough time left in the term to implement it and get the requisite feedback. 

But we've still got some other ideas in the pan: either something for gamers who spend too much time at the console, or something for professors who are crap at public speaking. Not sure yet which one we'll go for, but we've got a week or so before we start prototyping, so a bit of grace. I'm swinging towards the gamer thingamy. I reckon there are loads of people who'd be happy to see the gaming world put to better use, and it'll be quite fun to mess around with the format.

I'm thinking of something along the lines of a murder mystery party at the moment: an interaction between social exchange, a bit of problem solving, and a smattering of physical activity as well (maybe even something like geocaching to get people out in the open). Could be fun. If you've any ideas on any of this, let me know.

OK then, here we go...

OK folks, it's time to start blogging. 

To kick off, here's a quick introduction: My name's Dan Walker Smith, I'm a British journalist based in the States for a year on a Fulbright Scholarship. I've been a print journo and broadcaster for a couple of years, and I thought this was probably the time to get my teeth into blogging.

Right now I'm at Stanford, doing an MA in communications - mainly journalism, to be honest, but a healthy slice of design and digital stuff as well, which makes things more interesting. In fact, the design element is probably the most interesting bit of the course, so I'm looking into making that a bigger part of my life (or career - seem to be interchangable right now).

I like comedy, radio, ceramics, breakdancing, music with beats, laughing, cracking weak puns, cooking, cycling, travel and very spicy food. Way back in the day I used to like writing as well, but three years of journalism kicked that out of me, so hopefully this blog will re-ignite the fire.

I also present a couple of radio shows on KZSU in Stanford: The Beaten Track, 9 'til 12 on Friday mornings, Pacific time, and Speakeasy, which is a show where we talk a load of bollocks on any topic that springs to mind. That one's on at 12.30pm on Wednesdays. Tune in if you get the chance - there should be podcasts soon, as well.