Thomil's Random Ramblings

Writer’s block – If you’re a writer or content producer in any way, shape or form, you’ve experienced it at one point or another. I’ve certainly gotten very well acquainted with that bastard over the ten plus years that I’ve been blogging, chances are that any major gaps in the publication rhythm of my blogs are due to that annoying little bugger. To the uninitiated out there, it may seem like a minor issue, but if you’re a content producer in any way shape or form, it can be a real problem. Now granted, I’m not making any money on my blog, as Google Adsense simply doesn’t pay off at all unless you have massive viewership numbers, but I like seeing the number of views on my blog posts climb as much as the next guy, and the moment you are able to monetise your content, writer’s block can very easily lead to a loss of income, as your blog or YouTube channel will get downrated by the major search engine algorithms out there. So yes, it is a very real issue. But how do you get around it? H...

There’s something rotten in the state of Cork! For years, the supposed “City Rising” has been trapped in a downward spiral. Yes, new and impressive buildings have sprung up along Albert Quay and around Kent Station, I work in one of them, however behind that glossy veneer, the city has been slowly falling apart. The streets are pockmarked with potholes that more often than not border on craters, pavement stones are loose and waiting to trip up unsuspecting pedestrians. What should be sweeping urban plazas are desolate wastes, dotted with black asphalt scars where trees used to be. Entire streets have been reduced to looking like a war zone, with crumbling shells of buildings held up by rusting steel beams, ready to crush passers-by. That’s if you can walk down those streets in the first placed without being run over by cars, lorries and delivery vans criss-crossing every which way, ignoring red lights and using narrow laneways as rat runs. Even they can count themselves lucky if they’r...