Akin Akíntáyọ̀ 🏳️‍🌈 #European

Nickel Blogs - Blog by blog for 21 years akinblog.nl/2024/12/nickel… A note to celebrate the blog I started 21 years ago today. Thank you for your patronage and here's to many more anniversaries, in the future.

The Tired of Tired akinblog.nl/2026/05/the-ti… Whatever the state of mind one has, the desire is to break out of the funk.

@chuks_xo @DailyAFC I asked that question yesterday and discovered it is about the scope of authority and influence. poe.com/invite/db709f0…

@DailyAFC I never knew there's such a huge difference between being a manager and a head coach... I had always thought that both means the same thing and just just being used interchangeably

Mikel Arteta did not request to be promoted from ‘head coach’ to ‘manager’, but Arsenal did it to bring the Spaniard into senior strategic conversations. He now had access to key business data and metrics. It helped him understand that the club were making themselves competitive on the pitch as rapidly as the game’s regulatory landscape and their commercial growth permitted. 📈 [@gunnerblog]

Thought Picnic: Quiet Pursuits of Excellence akinblog.nl/2026/05/though… Over the decades, in work and expression, my motivation is to make an impact.

I've Never Liked Liquorice akinblog.nl/2026/05/ive-ne… Reflections on an endoscopy, a hiatus hernia, and being the first customer of the day.

Patience and the Idiot Behind the Wheel akinblog.nl/2026/05/patien… When people drive with the sense that they are exerting themselves on an uphill bicycle ride rather than treating their vehicles as a powerful machine with controls, accidents happen.

Tubing Down the Gullet akinblog.nl/2026/05/tubing… Notes on anxiety, anticipation, and the night before an endoscopy.

@DoubleEph Well, I understand your discomfiture, but I'll use that construct; and though 'sitting' might work, it'll sound quite off to me.

“You will no longer be sat at the Cabinet table” Not even Chaucer himself can convince me this popular usage of “sat” is correct English. Everyone says it, yes. But I simply refuse to accept it.

When Change Borrows the Lexicon of Grief akinblog.nl/2026/05/when-c… Sometimes, there are inappropriate uses of methods to address less serious, even if impactful, issues in life. The result, though unintentional, leaves people worse off.

The Family We Inherit, the Family We Choose akinblog.nl/2026/05/the-fa… Seven Years, Three Cities, One Marriage and the hope of dreams coming true.

I Am Not Your Gayologist akinblog.nl/2026/05/i-am-n… Sometimes, there is nothing to teach or explain; things are just the way they are, for us to react, in whichever way we choose, hopefully for the betterment of our humanity.

Of Bus Screens and Wandering Thoughts akinblog.nl/2026/05/of-bus… If thought control is one of my superpowers, I had better always have good thoughts.

In Wine, In Play, In Anger, and In Indifference akinblog.nl/2026/05/in-win… When what you expected was some empathy, but it was dispelled with a shrug of indifference.

Essential Snobbery 101: Ritzy on Piccadilly akinblog.nl/2026/05/essent… Piccadilly is observed from the Ritz to Fortnum's, where the servers are dressed, and the served are not bothered.

The Laws Being Flat: Hereditary Peers and the Monarchy's Exposed Flank akinblog.nl/2026/05/the-la… I think removing hereditary peers from the House of Lords threatens to make the birthright concept of monarchy succession anomalous.

The many tests of a patient waiting in patience akinblog.nl/2026/04/the-ma… Solo patients in hospital carry many burdens, the biggest one is just getting the assurance that they can be treated and will get better.

Big ups to Botswana 🇧🇼 for deleting homophobic laws.

Reading the headline, we all thought one thing, even still think it, whether or not the two-year-old was there. Image from @Telegraph

@DoubleEph Whoever can form a government can wreak havoc, even coalitions do too. What have they really done with this majority they already have? As for the anger measurement device, anger can be borne of many different persuasions or passions, whose anger is more valid, to vote?

My strongest held view about the 2024 GE is that the country would be in a much better position if voters had given Labour a much smaller majority (50 max, 70 at a stretch). Handing them this ridiculous majority basically set them up for failure. This is why in the dystopian future I imagine, there’d be an official at every polling station with a hand-held MiB style neuralyzer. Before they let you in, they zap your brain and determine if you’re too angry to vote and then send you back home if you exceed the anger threshold. Voters shouldn’t be allowed to vote angry!

Thoroughness Is Not Stalling akinblog.nl/2026/04/thorou… We get pushed to implement before we have understood or are confident; however, nothing can replace essential thoroughness and rigour, before acting.