Nerd Church - Hope Against Hatred

(Warning: this post discusses terrorism and hate crimes)

Is it me, or is the world in a free-fall of hate?

Between the Sri Lanka attacks, the murder of Lyra McKee, and the day-to-day hate crimes we see here, there, and everywhere, it can sometimes feel like there's no hope left.

There is. There is hope.

There will always be hope.

Nerd Church - Happy Easter (or, Let's Respect Each Other, Yeah?)

Happy Easter/Pasg Hapus dearest nerdlets!

Image by Couleur from Pixabay

One of the most enduring symbols of Easter is eggs, dontcha think?

Chocolate eggs, painted eggs, eggs with chicks breaking out, eggs just randomly decorating everything!

But I've been noticing some egg-hate lately.

And I don't mean from Vegans - that's a whole different set of issues related to a different set of moral questions - nope, I mean from people who don't know much about history.

Nerd Church - Give Me Gareth Thomas Over Israel Folau, Any Day

Those of you in parts of the world where rugby isn't A Big Thing™ probably haven't heard about the current Israel-Folau-homophobia situation.

For those people, here's a quick summary:

- Israel Folau is a world-class Australian international rugby player

- He's been warned previously about his homophobic posts on social media

- He did it again

- It's likely he'll be dropped from the Australian national team just before the World Cup because they ain't putting up with that sh** any more

- An English rugby player, Billy Vunipola, has also stuck his oar in

Month In Review(s) - March 2019

March was blood, sweat, and tears.

...literally!

March was a month in which I worked my a** off (no change there then!) and learned that apparently when my body's decided I've worked too much, it gives me a spike of Anxiety and a nose-bleed.

I f**k you not.

Nerd Church - 4 Tips For Blogging When Busy

I've been super-busy lately, and I've just about managed to keep up with the blogging.

I haven't got everything done that I wanted to do, but I've kept it ticking over with my average of 3 posts a week, plus answering comments, blog-hopping, Twitter-ing, and all the hidden blog tasks like SEO and finding images for posts.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Phew! When I put it that way, I wonder how I've been doing all this plus running my own business and dealing with regular life-stuff, but I have! (No wonder I've been so tired!)

Also there has been literal blood, sweat, and tears over the past month - I've come to the conclusion that I don't need to add to that with stress over blogging!

Nerd Church - Brexit and Hatred

I almost cried yesterday.

Image by Republica from Pixabay

There was a pro-Brexit march outside parliament, and as I was watching the news, I saw a White Dragon flag go by.

I didn't know wtf it was at first - it looked like someone had poorly reconstructed a Welsh flag after having one described to them by someone who saw a picture of one twenty years ago.

A White Dragon. Facing the wrong way. On a red background.

Nerd Church - The Dilemma of Morally Dubious Media (Ft. American Psycho, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter)

Warning: this post discusses morally dubious media, including but not limited to: rape, murder, incest, general violence.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

American Psycho is about a serial killer that takes pleasure in raping and killing women in the most horrible ways, and the narrative goes into gratuitous detail about it.

Do I have your attention? Buckle up, dearest nerdlets!

No matter what, there is always gonna be media - books, films, TV series, whatever - that is kinda dubious on the ol' morality front.

Is that ok? Is that something we should be consuming? Is that something that people should be creating?

And if it isn't, is that something that we should be supressing?

Should we be, to put it bluntly, censoring it?

Nerd Church - New Zealand. What Can I Say?

New Zealand.

What can I say?

Nothing that can make this horrible terrorist attack better or more bearable.

Nothing that can bring back the beautiful people you lost.

All I can give you is my heart, which breaks for you.

All I can give you is my love, in the faint hopes that it will help in some tiny way to sooth what hatred has done.

Month in Review(s) - February 2019

February was... OK.

Look, I'd love to say it was great. But my Depression has been kind of up-and-down.

So I can't honestly call it 'great' - but 'ok' is fairly accurate.

I survived it. I even enjoyed some of it. So 'ok' is what I'm gonna call it.

Nerd Church - Practise and Prioritise Self-Care, Instead of Working Yourself Into the Ground

I work my a** off.

There are no qualifiers to that - I do.

Image by Prawny on Pixabay

Nerd Church - Save the World

With the world the way it is (*looks out at trash fire and sighs*) the major issue our planet is facing is in danger of being pushed to the side-lines.

But we need to focus on climate change.

Because, contrary to what the loud handful of naysayers say, we are wrecking the planet.

Image by TheDigitalArtist on Pixabay

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: Relocating Cymru

If you're familiar with this blog, you're probably aware that I'm Welsh.

(If not, then how on Earth have you managed to miss that? That's actually impressive!)

We win flags, ok?

So it may come as something of a shock to you that in the past I've rarely, if ever, set stories in Wales.

Nope.

In fact, I was more likely to set a story in London than Cardiff - and I've never set foot in London.

History nerd that I am, I probably know more about London 150 years ago than I do London today.

Nerd Church - What Is A Wall?

What is a wall?

How would you define it?

A barrier, maybe.

Yes, maybe. But a barrier to what?

Month in Review(s) - January 2019

January went by in a flash - and not the cool, Barry Allen, kind. (You gotta love nerd humour 😁)

I guess it's because I had an awful cold for half the month...? 😷

And aside from that, I've just been doing the usual, hectic, working-my-a**-off, stuff.

Nerd Church - Rebel Valentine 3: Revenge of the Roses

Is it just me?

No, really, is it me?

Is there something fundamentally unlovable about me? Am I undeserving of romance or love? Is that why no-one’s ever been ‘in the picture’?

Am I broken?




These thoughts are, of course, utter b*llsh**.

But part of me still kinda believes them.

Welcome to Rebel Valentine 3!


If you’ve read previous Rebel Valentine’s posts, you probably know where this is going.

If not, buckle up and prepare for potentially TMI. (I’ll try to keep it lowkey, but no promises!)

Nerd Church - Responsible Reporting Required: How Media Outlets Are Failing To Follow Suicide Prevention Guidelines

(Warning: this post discusses suicide and self-harm. It also discusses poor reporting of these issues, and the danger of 'copycat' incidents.)

(For helplines, see details at the bottom of this post.)


There's been a lot of buzz in the UK over the last week or two over the prevalence of self-harm imagery on the Internet, and its link to suicide.

Now, there's def. issues with that, but there's also more issues than you'd think with the actual god-damned reporting of this issue.

The UK's leading suicide prevention charity, The Samaritans, provides Media Guidelines [PDF] for reporting on suicide.

These guidelines contain advice based on academic research on the affects of different types of news coverage.

I check them whenever I'm talking about this issue, and when I make a conscious decision to bend them, as I did when talking about the death of Chester Bennington, I'm very clear about my reasons for this, and exceptionally careful with every single word I use.

Nerd Church - A Few Ruminations on Perspective

You can see exactly the same thing as someone else... and somehow you both see it differently.

Sometimes that's because you were looking at what happened from a different angle - a physically different angle, where you literally saw things differently.

For example, videos taken from different angles lead people to believe different versions of events.

People see details that are blocked from the view of others, but in turn they lose details that others can see.

Nerd Church - Caffeinated Current Events: Dear Lord, the Breakfast (Brexit)

I swear to God. I swear to Iesu Grist. Wtf parliament dudes?! Wtf?!

Breakfast (or, as some people call it, Brexit,) isn't going too well, so I'm hear to explain in a caffeine-fuelled, (hopefully) satirical fashion!

(Note: these are my opinions, you can totally disagree with me, I don't mind.)

Yep, this is another 'Caffeinated Current Events' post - 'cos you lot seemed to like the last one.

(It's a little like Drunk History - only sober and present-day, so... not.)

Nerd Church - Media Overload: Quality, Quantity, and Diversity

There is more media and entertainment in our world today than ever before.

Even putting to one side the numerous web-pages and status updates that are published every single second, the rate at which new books, films, TV shows, songs, etc. are being created and published is immense.

Month In Review(s) - December 2018

In order to fully boot 2018's a** out the back door, there's still a little business to attend to - in this case, December's wrap-up.

Except for Christmas (which is always amazing - I love Christmas,) December sucked.