I recently listened to the audiobook of Phil Wang's sort-of-memoir Sidesplitter, where the comedian talks about many areas of his life particularly where cultures intersect - food, family, comedy, and more global topics like the British Empire past, present and future, and how race and racism affects people every single day. They're heavy topics in places but the book is really well done, with wit and humour but also a …

I've never really got on that well with Siri. Apple's voice activated assistant can do some cool things but she never really listens to me and I find it easier just to swipe and tap to get what I want. I'm not alone in getting frustrated with Siri, but I've long been complaining to Mr C that she just doesn't listen to me. He's not experienced the same level of …

Just a bit of inspiration from an old episode of Radio 1's Screen Time podcast with Ali Plumb. As I've said to people on Instagram and Twitter quite a lot lately, don't be ashamed of your opinions. If you happen to, for example, not like The Favourite, and everyone's saying how amazing it is, but you're like, I don't like it. Don't feel ashamed, don't be like, oh I've got …

I'm currently listening to the audiobook Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. It's focus is on the gender data gap - the ways in which the world is often unthinkingly designed for men and how that affects women in real and unexpected ways. I'm finding it hard going, not because of the book itself - it's well written, researched and read - but because the unintended and far-reaching consequences of …

So I've just binge watched all six Rocky films in a row, not all in one day, I'm not a maniac, but without watching other films in between. Somehow despite having the least interest in, and probably actively disliking boxing, these films grabbed my attention and became something of an obsession. The drama is brilliant. The dialogue nutty. The training montages legendary. What I loved most of all, though, was …

I'm pretty in love with Tina Fey as it goes, but watching her episode of the David Letterman Netflix interview show only served to make me love her more. She talks sense, she's eloquent, confident but modest and a bit of a comedy genius, what's not to like? Two highlights from the show, but make sure you watch the whole thing if you can. On being a woman in comedy …

Like many people, I love Nadiya of Bake Off and now her own TV show fame. I've been watching her British Food Adventure with a sort of vague interest - experimenting in the kitchen is not high on my agenda at the moment. But, then I saw the third episode and realised I should pay more attention to this lady - she talks sense. Me too, Nadiya, me too.

Working my way through Michael Palin’s first collection of diaries, and stumbled across this paragraph – a dream of utopia that is still relevant today, even though we’re further away than ever. I’m glad that there are cars and planes and television and washing machines, and I think we cannot suddenly pretend that they have not been invented – but I feel we must control their use, and that they …

It has become a tradition in our household to watch Love Actually at some point over the festive holidays. It’s a sugary sweet treat, although usually ends up in both happy and sad tears, particularly as each year passes and makes us feel ever more closer to the characters involved. Anyway, we indulged this year and instead of the floods I was expecting, I actually found the whole thing to …

I am confident that someday in the future The Rock, who was once a professional wrestler, will run for president of the United States, and I think that he will win. I have seen with my own eyes the power of The Rock. The Rock is a uniter, not a divider. When the BOP showed Walking Tall, the turnout for every screening all weekend long was unprecedented. The Rock has …

I pick and choose my way through Desert Island Discs, but the wonderful thing about it is the timeless nature of all the interviews. The BBC have made the full archive available indefinitely, so you can listen to anyone at any time. I subscribe to the podcast, but often don’t get around to listening until well after the interviews have been aired. I just recently listened to Dame Judi Dench’s …

There is no one right way to blog, e-mail, or otherwise share content with the world. No right time to post, no right combination of networks to use, no perfect font size or color. So at a certain point you're going to have to go back to the only true metric, the only like that matters in the end. Yours. Boing Boing: Escaping the new media cargo cult

It's a big responsibility and an honor to work in that huge orbiting laboratory. Figuring out how to support life in the hostile environment of space has resulted in thousands of down-to-earth spin-offs, from temperature-regulating underwear to heart pumps that rely on Shuttle fuel-pump technology. The concrete benefits and by-products of the science we do in space have touched fields from agriculture to medicine to robotics. Data gathered on the …

As is often the way, the first part of my December downtime has been spent curled up under a duvet desperately waiting for the hour I can have my next Lemsip. This year, I tried a new tactic of supplementing the real medicine with that other thing that's supposedly even better: laughter. There were a few new stand up shows available on iTunes, those that have presumably also been released …

Box of Lies with Channing Tatum

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 …

I'm a bit late with these this year, but you know how it is. My diary has quotes on the bottom of each page and I like to share the best ones with you. "Going to church no more makes you a Christian than sleeping in your garage makes you a car." Garrison Keillor "Love thy neighbour as yourself, but choose your neighbourhood." Louise Beal "Politicians are the same everywhere. …

Back in the days when Mr C and I first began spending quite a lot of time together, we went to London several times, and on one of these journeys, I was introduced to the phenomenon that is "Underground Bridges". I have mentioned them briefly before but not in too much detail. Basically, entering London on the M4, you travel through what any normal person would call a tunnel. But …

Happiness is being too busy to be sad.

Every year I buy a diary that has two days to a page and I fill it with nonsense details about what I had for dinner and where I went during my lunch hour. Things that aren't particularly interesting to anyone else, but are interesting for me to look back on later. I can never remember the little things like that, but whenever I do, it brings back the more …

Insomniacs are relentless about time, about night-time, because each minute is another grain of sand through the hour-glass and into your head for the next day. Time For Bed, David Baddiel I'm no insomniac, but I can understand that. I could not sleep at all last night. I grabbed an hour between 11 and 12, and then I watched the clock tick by until about half 2. The rest of …