Blog About Sam's Thoughts And Riting Diary

Have you done a good deed today? Doing a good deed then bragging diminishes the good deed. Or does it? If somebody saves a child from a burning building, then proceeds to brag about it, does that change the action? Of course not, but it does reveal the sponsoring thought/motivation. The “hero” saved the child because of the possibility of future recognition. The child is saved – no doubt the deed is good and done – does it matter if the reason isn’t as wholesome as originally thought? I bet the child’s parents wouldn’t care one bit. Full disclosure: I dunno if Buddha said that So then if a good deed is a good deed regardless of the reason for doing so, what does it matter whether the deed-doer was behaving altruistically? If that is what motivates them to do a good deed, surely it’s better that they do the deed and get their “return” of feeling proud, and enjoying the likes on Social Media. Some people are inspired by others to be more charitable, more generous – postin...

In December 2016 I set a few New Year’s Resolutions. Like millions of others, I have tried and failed in the past. I am an advocate of changing your life today rather than waiting for tomorrow or a specific date, so why set NYRs? There’s something powerful about the changing of a year, I had intentions that just happened to arrive before the new year so I married the two together; I wanted to run and cycle faster and further, and I also wanted to be more consistent in my writing. 2016 featured a lot of manic writing (I wrote 40,000 words in a month) followed by uninspired periods of emptiness. So, with those motivations in mind, I set the following goals: Finish my novella ‘Blackout’ Log spending daily Run 1,000 miles Cycle 2,000 miles (+3 other run/cycle targets, all achieved.) I only failed the first goal. Instead of finishing Blackout I wrote Idle Riot , edited it multiple times and polished it. I’m happy with that. I wanted to know how much ...

Last month I wrote a  blog entry  detailing a particularly bad day in which a Southeastern employee told me I'd be better off getting the bus. If you enjoyed that, you'll likely enjoy this. If you still shiver when you think back to that blog post, I strongly advise you to look elsewhere. I can't tell you how excited I have been to post this article. I have logged the lateness of my trains on a daily basis and, up until a few days ago, I was ready to go. Unfortunately, I suspect Southeastern hired hackers to take my computer down, leaving me no choice other than the dreaded "System Restore". So, rather than my excellently colour-coded spreadsheet (the beginnings of which can be seen in the previous entry), you'll have to take my word for Southeastern's tardiness. Alongside the daily entries of exactly how late my trains were, I created a formula to produce a running average of all journeys entered. The last time I checked, at the beginning of ...

Travelling by train should be a peaceful, enjoyable and smooth experience in which one arrives at their local station, boards a train, finds a seat, reads a book, arrives at their destination, alights from the train, and goes about their daily business. However, t ravelling with Southeastern is like tying a shoelace wearing oven gloves; it’s possible but unnecessarily hard. Today  I decided to get the 1053 as I had a meeting in Greenwich at midday. The 1053 gets in to Greenwich at 1132 should the stars align, and those pesky wet leaves keep off the rails.   I left home at 1035, walked a kilometre to get there and arrived a few minutes before the train was due to arrive. I had upheld my end of the bargain. Before I could even ask for an Off-Peak return to Greenwich, the cashier told me not to get a train as the next one wouldn’t arrive for at least an hour. Pardon?  Yep, I’d be better off getting a bus (a what?)  to Dartford and getting a train from the...

Telephone conversations on trains should be punishable by death. I have been told I can be melodramatic at times. Can ’t see it myself. Okay, I suppose some conversations are acceptable provided they fulfil the following criteria:   Speak quietly. If I can hear you while I’m listening to music, you’re too loud.   Shorter than two minutes. Why do you need to talk to anyone for longer than that? Talk to them in your own home you bloody fiend.   The call is necessary. Telling your mate Dave you had a lovely pint today and that it was your first in twenty-four days isn’t relevant (I actually heard somebody tell Dave this. Fuming). Even if it is relevant it can wait. Read a book, write a passive aggressive future blog post, listen to some music or partake in the most considerate of pastimes: sleep. The people that sleep on trains are my favourite - I’ve yet to come across a snorer - watch them drool, catch flies and wake up in a panic. Gold. I saw a guy ...

6.03am With winter drawing closer and the prospect of cycling indoors rearing its ugly head, my friend Alin and I decided to cycle to Cambridge, and back, to make Sunday a Funday. Alin messaged me at 9.30 on Saturday morning, we decided between going to Brighton (120 miles with 10,000 feet of climbing) and Cambridge (135 miles with 4,500 feet of climbing). The total weight of me, my bike and all the gear come to ~100kg. If I can avoid climbing I will! Unsurprisingly, I opted for the longer, substantially flatter ride through Essex. As flat as Essex may be, and believe me it was strangely flat, after a year of cycling in East Sussex and Kent, around the North Downs, it was also incredibly windy. Even after Brian had buggered off, taking his storm up north with him, the wind still almost reduced me to tears. A headwind there and a tailwind home would have been ideal, but crosswinds the whole way made for a ride that demanded concentration, and a strong grip, at all times. Every...

While The Donald and Kim J trade insults bringing forward the world's end I have been learning about Typesetting. Actual footage of me During a talk this week, the guest speaker spoke (what are the chances?) about the role of typesetting within the publishing industry and it piqued my curiosity. Somehow I have read thousands of books and never noticed that both margins line up. It's a fine art of manipulating spaces between letters and words in order to create a body of text that is fully justified . After looking at my latest piece of flash fiction sellotaped to the wall, I immediately realised how hideous the right margin looked. When I typed the work up on my typewriter I just ended each line before I ran out of space. "Flush left" - Amateur Initially I thought I would just play it by ear and try to manually line up the right margin as I typed. Before I even began I realised that would have been incredibly frustrating and involve loads of ugly h...