Funfare for the Common Man

“Having a child is to show an absolute accord with mankind. If I have a child, it's as though I'm saying: I was born and have tasted life and declare it so good that is merits being duplicated.” (Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz ) How many times have I mentioned something along the lines of ‘this is a far cry from the kind of crap I used to write about!’? Well, here we go again: when I started this blog in 2009, I never thought it would one day turn into a post on children – my own children, in fact (or rather, child). Before going any further, have a look at this article: Why all parents need sabbaticals from their families   Okay, so I am getting ahead of myself. My daughter is not even 6 months old, so I certainly don’t need a sabbatical at all just yet, though I am in the midst of a brief one as my wife and daughter have just gone to Vienna for a week on their own. I’m not sure what to do with myself. Before crossing that Rubicon, I’d like to sh...

‘In football, everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team.’ Jean-Paul Sartre Кто не рискует, тот не пьет шампанского. (‘If you don’t risk, you don’t drink champagne.’) I love blaming others. Especially when it’s not my fault. I won’t hesitate to throw people under the bus. Does this make me a bad person? Probably. So, even though I decided at the start of the World Cup that I was going to let fate determine how I would invest for my daughter’s future – I mean, that’s not a terribly irresponsible thing to do at all! – I am still not going to take responsibility for coming up with such an absurd idea. It’s not my fault – simply, the wrong teams made it to the semifinals and then the final. How was I to know? (This is a follow-on from my last post . If you haven’t yet read that, then the following will probably make little to no sense. Unlike most of my posts, which make perfect sense and are always clear, logical and easy to follow.) I won’t ge...

My blog has been, over the years, if nothing else but ‘eclectic’. It started off with my wistful peregrinations around Kyrgzystan and Central Asia and then moved on to university life in rural New Hampshire with my wry and not-always-so-astute observations of the locals and their antics. From there it has meandered into a ridiculous array of topics, from love & relationships to existential angst to consumer boycotts to me whingeing about technology and cultural transgressions and deeply irritating quirks. There has been way too much philosophy in and there have also been some misguided, cack-handed and possibly ill-advised forays into the world of finance & investing, football tactics and strategy (far too in-depth for a lay audience and not perceptive enough for football junkies), not to mention [American] football gambling with my wife and cat. There is really quite a range of topics that I have attempted to cover over the years. This blog is, also, more than anything ...