Man Writes Blog

Many apologies for the lack of activity on the blog over the last couple of weeks. I've been ridiculously busy but the reason is actually rather exciting and so I thought I should at least take the time to share it with you. Ready...

My radio listening habits wander between BBC 6Music (for Adam and Joe), Radio 4 (for feeling smug and cerebral), Radio 1 (a recent experiment to see if I can learn to listen Chris Moyles without wanting to punch something), XFM (to keep up with what the indie kids are listening to) and occasionally...

I've been playing Apple's Texas Hold'em poker game on my iPhone quite a lot recently which features an impressively glossy interface and a host of virtual opponents. There are two possible views of the game in progress depending on how you hold your iPhone...

Since the start of the year the my efforts have been largely marshalled against an online comedy project which is a guerilla attempt by me and writing partner Mark to sidestep development hell by writing, producing, directing, performing, and editing our own project without permission or...

I was unfortunate enough to watch a few minutes of Paris Hilton's British Best Friend on ITV2 last week. Now I know Paris by reputation but have never really watched anything she's been in...

It is only very recently that I have fully embraced the concept of tea. Certainly in terms of my 36+ years on this planet I would say less than the last 1% has seen me drinking tea on at least a daily basis. It's not that I previously disliked tea...

For a blog by a “struggling comedy writer” there's been precious little recently on comedy writing...

It seems churlish to attempt to write about anything other than snow, particularly as I used it as an excuse for not hitting posting anything of substance yesterday. As I look out of my window now, the sun is shining and the snow is melting, which is probably no bad thing...

Due to the heavy snowfall overnight*, today's Man Writes Blog entry will be delayed by several hours. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and hope to resume normal service as soon as possible...

It's been a couple of months since I bought an iPhone (considered opinion — great gadget, rubbish phone) and although I often use it to pick up emails I rarely use it to send emails...

I know the UK is officially in recession and we all have to find ways to economise, but I was rather startled to find “A Guide to the Top 50 UK Garden Birds” tucked inside today's Observer Food Monthly magazin

I got back yesterday from a week's skiing in St Anton, Austria with tired legs and an exhausted wallet, having had my fill of overpriced, mountain top spaghetti bolognaise and infuriatingly bouncy, innuendo-laden Europop such as Zwanzig Zentimeter...

It's 8.39am on Sunday morning and in 35 minutes time I'm on my way to catch a train to Gatwick to go for a week's skiing in St Anton, Austria. The conditions are supposed to be very good, even though there hasn't been any snow since January 1st...

Welcome to the first entry of 2009...

I had a lovely day on Saturday with a bunch of friends drinking and eating in a rather splendid tapas bar near Borough Market...

Turns out the foodie theme was a bit trickier than I anticipated, but I did manage to come up with three nosh-themed cracker jokes, including my first attempt at one of those "end justifies the means" slightly rambling contrived puns.....

I'm still enjoying Crackers In Need — thanks to everyone who sent in nativity-related puns in response to yesterday's appeal. I'll kick off with my three and then share some of the ones sent in by other people... ...

Well, I've certainly been having pun fun on Day 2 of Crackers In Need and a few of you have also been hard at work casting jokes in the pun furnace. Here are the best of my reindeer-related cracker jokes: ...

As anyone who reads this regularly reads this blog, or knows me in person, will be aware, I'm a big fan of high quality puns. Lazy, obvious puns are evil (contrary to popular belief, sarcasm is not the lowest form of wit) but good puns are an art form...

Thanks to everyone to voted in my little survey from last week. The results are as follows: Basically there was a 60/40 split in favour of blogging when inspired rather than blogging every day regardless of quality levels...

The dust has settled on Blovember — rather more dust than I would have wished — and it seems natural to look back on a month of solid blogging and see what, if anything, can be learned...

Shortly after I woke up this morning, my cold and my hangover started competing for control of my body. I had an unexpectedly boozy night with a friend last night and despite waking up feeling surprisingly perky, it wasn't long before I was starting to feel pretty damn rough...

As a self-confessed Apple obsessive — I currently have five iPods (of various generations), three Macs and an Apple TV — it became a point of pride that I did not own an iPhone...

There's a bit in the back of Private Eye, amongst the classifieds, called Eye Need, which basically seems to be a place where people with (quite possibly genuine) sob stories post their bank account details in the hope that altruistic readers will transfer some money with no questions asked...

This morning I had a surveyor round to the flat to assess whether any of the cracks that have appeared in my walls since The Baron started building his subterranean empire are indicative of more serious structural problems...

For the last couple of days I've been suffering from the slightly sniffly, coughy cold that seems to be going around at the moment — manwritesblog flu, if you like...

I just watched 24: Redemption. It apparently bridges the gap between Season 6 and Season 7 (yet to be shown). Now I've only seen seasons 1 to 4 but I didn't seem to be missing any vital information needed to understand this latest installment...

Other people seem to be much better than me at getting good deals on things like mobile phone plans by playing hardball with the customer service people...

Okay, the boxer dog is now safely back with his owner. I've (we've) finished all 13 episodes of the first season of The Wire and I'm eager for more, though I can't speak for the dog. I may have to watch Season 5 of 24 first as a palate cleanser...

After my rather functional visit to the gym yesterday (“Come for a dump, stay for a workout”) I got back to the flat expecting to have to spend the next hour or so standing under the leaking waste pipe in a T-shirt and shorts trying to effect a boy scout repair, but in fact got back to find...

I'm looking after a friend's boxer dog for the weekend and since I'm not 100% confident that I can leave him alone in the flat for any length of time, it's basically me and him and The Wire for the next 48 hours, with occasional breaks for walks and meals...

I've spent most of today editing together a short video trailer for a project that I won't mention specifically on this blog, because for various reasons it makes sense to keep the two things separate, but many of you will know what I'm talking about...

Until now, there has been no mention of The Baron during Blovember, but let's face it, it was only a matter of time...

I learn today that Woolworths has become the biggest victim of the credit crunch as it was revealed that bosses are in discussion with a potential buyer. And the mooted purchase price — the princely sum of £1...

I made a commitment to write something on this blog every day in November. Some of you may have noticed that I have, on occasion, already relaxed this to mean that I will write something for every day in November, i.e. occasionally allowing myself a day to catch up on the previous day...