While we were watching the Captain America sequel recently, there was one face that I felt like I recognised but couldn't quite place. Don't you just hate it when that happens? So distracting. This time, it was one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. henchmen, in it every so often but not exactly a big part. I'm not even sure it was a speaking part. It turns out this is Callan Mulvey, who …

I enjoy cooking a lot, but it’s something I’ve never really managed to get fully into. I had that brief interlude with baking and impressed myself with a couple of dishes, but even that ended up petering out before it really got going. The trouble I have is that I don’t really have the fundamental basic knowledge to start experimenting and learning and making great things. Without boring details about …

I was listening to an episode of Current Geek recently, when a fascinating conversation emerged regarding the structure of television shows and their series’. Current Geek features Scott Johnson and Tom Merritt with guests, discussing pop culture topics. At the end of each episode, they have a feature where they predict what will happen in the future. I’ll be honest, I usually skip past this section because there’s no way …

It was an impromptu trip to the theatre, a last minute decision to snap up tickets to The Phantom of the Opera on a spare Friday night nestled in the midst of a very hectic couple of months. I like musicals, as they have been ingrained in my life since childhood, but I haven't had as much chance to indulge recently as I'd like. Since watching We Will Rock You …

When I got back from the US, I was very enthusiastic to be a new baseball convert. Watching that game up close and personal was quite the revolutionary experience. Except, I'll be honest, I haven't watched more than about an hour or two since I've been back. I'm never sure when it's on TV and I don't really have the same time to focus on it as you do when …

I love that game where, you're listening to a song and it sounds just like another song and you compare and contrast. In this day and age, there aren't a lot of new things in music left to be discovered - almost everything has been done before and can be picked up as "copying" a previous artist. Whilst driving, I was listening to Return of the 90s, a surprisingly cheap …

I've stumbled across an interesting problem that hasn't bothered me for a while. The past few months have been hectic, with all the travelling and working and stuff, but it has resulted in me actually leaving the house and taking a handful of pictures here and there. When I got back from Houston, I suddenly remembered that I had a Flickr account. I hadn't checked in for a very long …

Whilst I was in Houston, I went to the cinema. I haven’t been to a cinema in years, and have pretty good reasons for not doing so, but I thought hey, why not see how the Americans do it? Alright, in all honesty, I just wanted to see how big the popcorn was. It was huge. You can’t really tell because there’s no scale, but the drink is twice the …

When it comes to getting creative, particularly with writing, we all know the key is to just get started. You’re not going to come up with anything by going about your normal day to day routines and hoping it is somehow getting done, you actually have to put the effort in and begin. There's an old video doing the rounds on Twitter at the moment, a talk by John Cleese …

Recently, I sat down and wrote a draft in Ghost about Ghost. Meta. It was an update on my experiences so far, which ended up as a bit of a complaint. I'm still in love with the concept of Ghost, but the gist of my dissatisfaction was two-fold. 1) On Film Watch, I miss the comments. Moving to Ghost meant either switching on Disqus or going without comments. I opted …

I'm not a huge fan of fireworks, but even I can appreciate a close up view of some pretty lights in the sky. This video was taken in Florida with a quadrocopter helping the camera get close to the action. The legality of flying drones is in question at the moment, but until that's decided, we can revel in the joy of videos like this.

When I stepped off the plane in Houston, I didn’t think Netflix was going to work. I have a UK account, obviously, and I figured that it just wouldn’t function across the pond. That was crazy thinking and when I opened the app I was overjoyed to see not only my current shows but also a selection of new and exciting things that we don’t get in the UK. Now, …

Continuing my space-mad theme at the moment, before I disappeared for two weeks, I was most excited to read this story about wifi on the moon! MIT have been experimenting with beaming things off multiple satellites in an attempt to reach the moon, and they reckon it’s possible, if a little tricky. Communicating at high data rates from Earth to the moon with laser beams is challenging because of the …

Watching a bit of Vevo TV on the Nashville channel (it’s more entertaining than it sounds), I stumbled across this video from Brad Paisley. It’s a terrible song but a great video, have a peek! It’s a water-skiiing squirrel! At first I thought, jeez, some animals must have been harmed in the making of this video, but a little closer investigation revealed it’s an actual squirrel that has been trained …

My interest in science and space has grown exponentially over the last few years. Science was one of those subjects that was beaten out of me at school and it’s taken a long while for me to really give it the time of day. Since I have, though, I’ve been fascinated, particularly developing a fledgling obsession with the moon. Over on Sidepodcast, we live commented some of the launch and …

When the chance to watch a baseball game in Houston came up, I jumped at it. Experiencing something so traditionally American, as well as enjoying an afternoon of entertainment made for an enticing invitation. It wasn't until I was sitting in my seat, snapping pictures of the highly manicured green field that I realised it counted towards my Life List goals as well - watching sports live. The thing about …

When we signed up for BT Sport, I figured it would be one of those things that would be exciting for a week or so, and then eventually become a forgotten about channel – or in this case, set of channels. I couldn’t have been more wrong. We’ve watched endless hours of content from the telecommunications broadcaster, and although not all of it appeals (ultimate fighting is not my cup …

Google have finally taken the plunge and announced they will be building their own self-driving cars, rather than attempting to adapt existing machinery to be self-sufficient. It makes sense, after testing out the viability of the concept, to then start from the ground up and create a new vehicle. The design is a bit bubble car, but if it serves the purpose, there’s always room for improvement on that front. …

Whilst pounding the streets of Dublin, we stumbled across a section of disused quay that was being redeveloped. An impressive theatre sits on the waterfront, whilst out on the waves, a rig has been set up to allow enthusiasts to wakeboard. I love these little spots where there would otherwise be no particular use for the water, and there’s not enough room to get up to speed with a boat. …

Whilst avoiding the internet over the last week or so, I was very heartened to see this pop up in my Twitter mentions. I love Bibendum, with his endless smiling face and happy, happy wave. It really cheered me up, and thus it occurred to me that what the world is missing is an app that sends you a daily Bibendum greeting. Just a different picture delivered direct to your …

To celebrate finishing my latest batch of exams, Mr C and I took a dash across the water to Dublin - a place we both love. A spot of sight-seeing, with ominous rainclouds overhead. It is Ireland, after all. The Spire of Dublin. As well as the occasional sight, we tasted the local wares. Our waitress brought us the wrong food and the wrong drinks, but eventually we got what …

CNET published an exclusive story about Nike's plans to shut down their FuelBand hardware section, including layoffs and a focus on software instead. This was rebuffed, sort of, by a spokesperson, although their quote was more about continued support of the existing bands, rather than expanding the line. We will continue to improve the Nike+ FuelBand App, launch new METALUXE colors, and we will sell and support the Nike+ FuelBand …

If you've been following my adventures online for any sort of time, you might already know that I haven't been big on the emotions. My Film Watch reviews, in particular, have shown that I've avoided getting swept up in romantic comedies, and those that are considered tearjerkers left me cold. Because everything is a Friends reference, I was kinda like Chandler. You may also have noted the past tense in …

The Verge posted a hands on video of the new CarPlay interface from Apple - Siri in your car, basically. It looks good. Well, no, it looks rubbish. But compared to what my current car does (which is nothing) and what other cars look like (which is awful), it's not a bad step up. The crucial thing about this new wave of in-car tech is that they are apps, they …

Time is my enemy at the moment. Life is a repetition of work, study, Sidepodcast, sleep. It is always better to be busy than bored, but frazzled is the word I’m choosing to use at the moment. With that in mind, here are a few things I’ve been using to try and make life a bit easier. News The Yahoo News Digest app intrigues me greatly, because I always think …

It wasn't long ago I was waxing lyrical about how great Jimmy Fallon's skit with Paul Rudd was - the pair of them taking on a lip sync battle with amusing results. Now, the Tonight Show host is back again with another classic. This time, he's roped in Billy Joel for a spot of crooning. I love the use of the looping app in this, and how great they both …

We've recently invested some time and energy in using Flipboard to share posts, pictures and shows from Sidepodcast, which meant having to learn to use the crazy thing. Primarily an app, Flipboard allows you to browse through content from Twitter, sites and various web locations in a gorgeous looking magazine style. There's absolutely no doubting that it's a good way to peruse content. I found it quite hard to get …

I was sad to hear that We Will Rock You will be closing, after 12 years as a mainstay of the West End theatre scene in London. Long time readers will know I was completely obsessed with this musical when it first came out, seeing it no less than five times in just a couple of years. I’m not a huge fan of the so-called “jukebox” musicals, but this one …

I read with interest this post about Maria Sharapova’s views on men playing three set matches. I’ve heard the arguments that women should play five-setters, to earn the equal prize money they were given a while back, but I hadn’t heard the flip side to that. At first, I couldn’t really see any reason for change, but actually reading her quotes, it makes a lot of sense. Sharapova’s main points …

There was a lot of consternation doing the rounds this week when it emerged the BBC have plans to switch BBC Three from a TV channel to online only distribution. I can't say that it's a hugely surprising move, particularly as they have made a big push recently with putting the episodes of comedies up on the iPlayer before they appear on TV. The big pink Premiere logo appears on …

If you're not a fan of Kindle-shaped reading products, never fear! The iBooks edition of the Pocket F1 Handbook: Guide to the 2014 Grand Prix Season has arrived. The book contains all the driver and team profiles, rules and regulations updates, and circuit information that you're going to need for the upcoming Formula One season, and has the iBooks bonus of easier navigation and better-looking tables. So, if you own …

A great video of the lovely Paul Rudd is doing the rounds today, as the actor faces off against talk show host Jimmy Kimmel in a lip sync battle. I love this for three reasons. First: Paul Rudd. Second: Queen. Third: Lip sync battle sounds like a fab game! And while I'm indulging in a bit of Paul Rudd, I saw this other video a while back, in which Rudd …

The Winter Olympics drew to a close last night, with one of those closing ceremonies that include about ten minutes of fireworks. I don’t get fireworks at all. Anyway, the games themselves saw two weeks of triumphs and controversies and tears and flowers, and all sorts of stuff. I really didn’t get to see as much of the games as I wanted, but unlike the London 2012 fortnight, in which …

To celebrate the release of the latest Guide to the 2014 Grand Prix Season, the previous two editions have been reduced in price, allowing you to complete your Pocket F1 Handbook collection. The Pocket guides have been previewing the last three seasons of Formula One, featuring all the information you need to know about drivers, teams, rules and regulations, plus bonus extra content in each edition of the book. The …

I was recently watching one of those episodes of Friends that are always on a TV channel somewhere, and realised that there's a lot of landline usage in the show. Because Friends ended in 2004, they're missing a whole ten years of technology, which includes the revolution of smartphones that came after the iPhone in 2007. I dread to think of the jokes Chandler could make about Flappy Bird. Anyway, …

Recently, we've been playing Tomb Raider, the definitive edition on the PS4. It's the game that actually made us interested in the new generation consoles in the first place, and it's a highlight in what has been a very quiet early market for this new Playstation. I was intrigued by the game trailer when we saw it so very long ago, it looked good but I was concerned about the …

The 2014 F1 season promises to be a dramatic one, a time of regeneration and modernisation that more than anything else guarantees to be unpredictable. With an overhaul in the regulations, a raft of driver and personnel movements, plus a handful of new races to challenge all, it is set to be an eventful year in motor sport. Defending champions Red Bull field a revised driver line-up, but they are …

I’ve been following the recent tumultuous times at TWiT with interest. As one of the mainstays of podcasting, and one of the few able to create a business from the process, Leo Laporte has always been something of an inspiration. When he hired Tom Merritt to create a daily news show and step into his shoes whenever necessary, I thought they were on to a very good thing. Unfortunately that …

Do you read a lot of series of books? I do. Books from the likes of Clive Cussler, Jeffrey Deaver, Bernard Cornwell, and Alex Scarrow all make my list. And the list is the key point here. Sometimes, particularly if there are double digits worth of books in a series, it can be hard to keep track. It’s okay if you’re just working through a trilogy, it’s not difficult to …

You win this time, Benedict-Sherlock! Ahhh, Sesame Street.

Apple are celebrating thirty years of putting technology at people's fingertips, and they've come out with a beautifully creative video showing off their gadgets in glorious surroundings or being put to fantastic use. Thankfully, they've toned down the emotion and the smug for this video, and what comes across is just how useful mobile technology can be and what a difference it is making, and will make, to the world. …

Another attempt at capturing the bubbles in all their slo-motion glory. This time with rousing music!

I joined Pinterest recently. I know this isn’t groundbreaking news, finally signing up to a social network that’s been around since 2010. I tried signing up once before but they didn’t have my preferred username so I had to go away and sulk about that for a bit. Pinterest, in my limited experience, appears to be one of those social networks that is different things to different people. I can’t …

Recently, I’ve noticed a few people lacking motivation when it comes to writing – specifically in this instance about blogging. I thought I’d share a few of my favourite tips on getting back your writing mojo, whatever the project, because it’s a new year and a good time to blow the dust off that keyboard. I’m not an expert, by any means, but I’ve written and I’ve had writer’s block, …

One of the things I miss most about running is playing about with Zombies Run. Making exercise fun is a key thing for me, and the game aspect of it helped keep my going when otherwise I would probably have stopped early. I've been keeping an eye on apps and things that made moving about fun, and spotted the new Zumba Dance app. Now, I've never done Zumba - my …

I wrote about our difficult initiation with the Playstation 4, but once it finally started working, there is no question that it's a great bit of kit. We've played a couple of games and been pretty impressed with what we've seen, but most of our attention has been on Need for Speed Rivals. I am the first to admit that my virtual driving skills are practically non-existent, and racing games …

For the previous two series of Sherlock, I have written a dedicated post for each episode, celebrating the highs and lows of each series as it progressed. This year, I didn't feel the need to do that, as my thoughts tend to cover the third series as a whole. That seems like a good place to start, the whole series didn't seem to generate as much excitement within me as …

I always like to look at the iTunes Film Bundles section, to see what they've got on offer. They do a lot of franchise bundles - Back to the Future, Harry Potter, etc. - but this past week I noticed they were doing a set of genre collections instead. The brilliance of these bundles is that they are around the £40 mark, for ten films. And not ten rubbishy films, …

So much love for this. I often forget to check xkcd but every time I do, there's always something that resonates.

Console gaming is a slow moving beast, particularly when compared with the fast moving online and app world. But after twenty years in the business, and with a desperate need to distinguish themselves from Microsoft's offerings, Sony should know better, try harder, get the digital side working seamlessly. Santa brought us an incredible gift this Christmas, in the shape of a Playstation 4. It's been well documented that we don't …