Nerd Church - Hope, Politics, and the Zombie Apocalypse

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Something important happened on Thursday, dearest nerdlets!

What..? The UK election..?

Yeah, that happened too.

We now know which brand of f**ked we, as a country, are stuck with *sighs*



What I'm talking about, though, is yours truly watching a truly bizarre, but amazing, film, called Anna and the Apocalypse.

Have you ever thought, 'wouldn't High School Muscial be better if it was combined with Shaun of the Dead... and it was in Scotland... at Christmas...?'

No? Well apparently someone did!

No, really. That is what this film is.

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: Dealing With Self-Doubt

If you've been around my blog at all in the past (love you!) then you probably know that I struggle with...

...Well, that list could take a while, but for the purposes of this post, I struggle with self-doubt.

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

So it's probably not that much of a surprise that I also have doubts when it comes to what I'm writing.

(Even blogposts - this is like my 6th attempt at writing this week's Nerd Church, and about the 3rd possible topic I came up with)

Month In Review(s) - November 2019

November was... it was ok.

I spent most of the month with a revolving-door of colds and viruses, so business as usual I guess! 😅

Nerd Church - London Bridge

(Warning: this post discusses the terror attack on London Bridge and related issues)

Sometimes, when one bad news story follows another, when one terrible event after another plays out on our screens, you can get the feeling that the words no longer have meaning.

But the words have meaning if you give them meaning.



London Bridge was an act of hate by someone who had previously shown themselves to be hateful - who had served their time for planning terrorist attacks and training camps.

But that doesn't mean parole, bail, license, is a bad thing.



Not everyone who makes a mistake will fail to learn from it.

People are people, dearest nerdlets. People are people.

Nerd Church - Caffeinated Current Events: What Even Is 2019?

Caffeinated Current Events! Where I drink too much coffee and talk about the stuff going on in the world! That means Trump & Brexit, so this is your fair warning! 

(It'll be as told by me, though, so hopefully bearable!)



Phew! 2019, couldn't you've gone just a little bit easier on us?! 

Crud, after 2016, we've just had one thing after another! Cut us some goddamn slack!

...The US is currently being led by a man who, (and I never thought I'd say this,) has less integrity than Nixon.

How is that even possible...? Does anyone know...?

Nixon actually resigned when he got his hand caught in the sleazebag cookie jar - Trump's just flat-out lying and refusing to budge.

...And I don't think even Nixon would've got away with colluding with Russia and bribing Ukraine.

And somehow people still believe he's innocent and that there's some sort of 'conspiracy' against him - newsflash: if there's a conspiracy, it's for him, not against him #JustSaying.

Nerd Church - Think Before You Speak

Social media. 

Love it, loathe it, or (like most of us) find yourself somewhere in between.

Whatever you feel about the ol' socials, sh** escalates fast online!

I... kind of think that a lot of the escalation is related to people not having some sort of filter between their reaction and their mouths/fingers

- (talking and typing - I mean talking and typing. Minds out of the gutter nerdlets!)

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Month in Review(s) - October 2019

October... what can I say about October?

October was a month, that happened, I guess! 😅

...complete with colds and a lot of work-stuff. But meh *shrugs* it was fine. Just an average month, really! 😅

Nerd Church - Why I Love WW1 Poetry

Morbid li'l goth-emo child that I am, I LOVE World War One poetry.

I read it all year round: Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenburg, Ivor Gurney, Edmund Blunden, Rupert Brooke...

*sighs happily*

So, seeing as how it's Rememberance Sunday, and it's the 11th of November tomorrow, I figured I'd let you in on the beautiful jewel of life that is WW1 poetry.

(Note: when I use the phrase 'WW1 poetry' I mean English-language WW1 poetry, mainly from British soldiers, with the odd Commonwealth soldier chucked in for good luck.

I'm sure that other nationalities also wrote poetry in a variety of languages and styles, but the WW1 poetry I and most people in the UK are familiar with is that I've just described.)

Nerd Church - Whose Dystopia Is This? A Discussion of Marginalisations in Dystopian Fiction, Focussing On Vox by Christina Dalcher

(Warning: this post discusses persecution of marginalised groups, sometimes in detail)


Dystopia, as a genre, is largely based on the oppression – either knowingly or unknowingly – of groups of people.

...Usually in a way that seems extreme in the context of the author’s cultural background, or else involves sufficient robots and sh** to convince us that this world is The Future™.

Nerd Church - 39

(Warning: this post discusses human trafficking, modern slavery, racism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and the tragic deaths of 39 immigrants)

For those of you outside the UK, who may not know, 39 immigrants were found dead this week in a lorry in Essex.

They were probably Vietnamese, but the details are still a bit fuzzy..

Nerd Church - Have A Little Consideration! (...And Treat Your Neighbours Right)

I think that some people - not everyone, but some people - need to re-evaluate their common decency, and the consideration that they may or may not have for the people around them.

Because sometimes, people do sh** that ain't a lot to them, but is, in fact, a big deal to other people.

Image by Prawny from Pixabay

My neighbours have dogs.

They're lovely dogs. Adorable af.

But they like to chase cats. And I have cats.

Month in Review(s) - September 2019

September! 

(This wrap-up isn't late, it's casually timed 😎)

September was cool.

I had another cold, but that's pretty much my life tbh.



I also had my birthday! Woo! Birthday!

Although, I did have a few mixed feelings this year...

Nerd Church - Dyscalculia (Part 2: The Real World)

Dyscalculia is a maths learning difficulty that affects a lot of things that other people find easy and/or straight-forward.

Today, I figured I'd give you a real-life example of how Dyscalculia affects me.

You can catch up on my first post about Dyscalculia, which includes a lot of general info., here.

Image by TeroVesalainen from Pixabay

A real-world Dyscalculia example: catching the goddamn train

Nerd Church - Dyscalculia (Part 1: What Is Dyscalculia?)

I've mentioned in passing before now that I have a learning problem - condition, disability, whatever you wanna call it - called dyscalculia.

So I figured it was about time (ha, you'll see why that's a pun soon,) that I let you know what that entails, and why that means I struggle with a lot of things that most people find easy.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Disclaimer time: I am not a medical, educational, or neurological expert. I’m a Welsh chick with a blog.

So, what is dyscalculia?


In its simplest explanation, dyscalculia is the maths version of dyslexia.

It affects numeracy, rather than literacy, and also affects a lot of things related to mathematical ways of seeing the world that most people don't actually associate with maths.

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: Writing Vs Self-Care

While my aim is to write every day (y'know, like all the advice seems to say you should if you wanna be successful as an author,) some days I just can't.

That's not strictly true - I usually end up writing something in a day: blogging, tweeting, e-mails, work stuff, etc.

But I don't always manage to work on my work-in-progress (WIP) every day.

Nerd Church - An Unpopular Opinion On the 'Don't Feed the Trolls' Campaign

There's a new campaign in the UK using the previously informal hashtag of #DontFeedTheTrolls.

The Center For Countering Digital Hate advises that you don't engage with trolls. 

Ignore, block, report. Rinse, repeat.

Now, that's certainly not a bad option for dealing with trolling.

And you should ALWAYS feel that you can use the mute, block, report options, or some variant thereof, if you want to.

Cos you owe no-one, and you need to protect your mental health. Take care, ok?




So, what's my unpopular opinion?

Nerd Church - It's My Birthday! (And I'll Cry If I Want To)

...Not that I'm particularly aiming to. But I'll give myself the option!

Yes, the day this post is published (15th Sep, unless I pushed 'Publish' instead of 'Schedule' again! 😅) is my birthday!

While I'm hoping to have fun and enjoy myself today... I have had some mixed feelings in the days leading up to today.

See, for my entire life, my birthday has been a few days before my grandfather's.

Month in Review(s) - August 2019

August was not as hot here in the UK!!!!! 

Thank whatever deity, divine power, or cosmic entity that may be listening!

Don't get me wrong, there were still days which were officially too hot. But there were less of them. *sighs happily*

Unfortunately, I spent most of August with a cold.

Because I'm one of those people who will catch every virus imaginable after a galandular-fever-like illness screwed my immune system over when I was 16. Good times.

Nerd Church - Caffeinated Current Events: We're Really F**ked (Like, More Than We Were Before)

I'm full of coffee, so let's try to figure out the state of the UK, shall we?

I don't know if you've been paying attention to UK politics lately, but it basically goes a little something like this:

Our Prime Minister is somehow Boris Johnson. 

Because we apparently haven't suffered enough yet.

Nerd Church - Escapism, Reality, the Power of Stories, and Brigsby Bear

Films, books, media, stories.

They’re how we talk, communicate, connect with each other, with the world around us, and how we understand ourselves. 

At least, that’s true for me, maybe it’s not for you.

Or maybe you just think it’s not the way it is for you 😉

...when I was making the graphic I somehow wrote 'realism' instead of reality but *shrugs* same diff I suppose! 😅

There’s an amazing, adorable, and, in places, heart-breaking, film called Brigsby Bear.

I love it.

It’s one of those films which rips your heart out, hands it to you, and then is like ‘look! This is what your heart looks like! Look at all the blood and gunk and stuff!’ (Metaphorically, of course.) 

It’s hard to talk about Brigsby Bear without either a) getting spoiler-y, or b) descending into fangirling to such an extent that all I’m doing is making a series of inarticulate noises.