Personal development is professional development, and so this page is home to those posts that don’t directly correlate to my career. Potentially political, potentially about pop culture, this is where I’ll write about the things that don’t quite fit anywhere else. Do I even need to put the disclaimer about being written in a personal capacity here?
- What Have I Been Reading & Watching: February 2021 EditionFrom anime to MLK, here is everything I read or watched in February 2021.
- Just Read: One More Thing… by B.J. NovakBJ Novak makes me want to be a better writer. He makes me want to care less and write more. One More Thing… is a selection of short stories ranging from single paragraphs about missed connections on the train, to epics about cereal box prize winners, with the rematch between the tortoise and the hare […]
- Just Read: Where do we go from here? Chaos, or community? By Martin Luther King, Jr.
I read this book in two distinct stages. The first chapter was slow going, and I put it down for a week or so. Partly because I was grappling with the question of how much a cliché of an ally it made me to read MLK during Black History Month, and partly because I just […] - Just Read: A Promised Land by Barack ObamaI first started to generally care about things when I was 16 years old. I use the term “generally care about things,” in lieu of “got interested in politics” because I think there’s an important distinction there, and I think it’s a distinction that is not only becoming increasingly important as we grow more and […]
- Just Read: Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Giovanni’s Room tells the story of an American living in Paris as he struggles to define and understand his relationships with the men he meets while there. - What have I been reading & watching? January 2021 edition.My monthly digest of what I’ve read and watched in January 2021.
- Just Read: Why We’re Polarized – Ezra Klein
Why We’re Polarized tackles the nature of our ongoing fear and hostility toward the “other.” - Just Read- Ecocide: Kill The Corporation Before It Kills Us by David Whyte
If there is one lesson in humility that has stayed with me, and likely will continue to stay with me for the rest of my life, it is the one taught to me by Ms. Reid, my English teacher from age 13-16. We had been set a class essay on a Shakespeare play; I forget […] - Just Read: Murder Your Darlings – Roy Peter Clark.
I am not a writer. I am, however, somebody that writes. I write thousands of words every week, in reports, in emails, in copy for the website of my employer. To me, the distinction is that I hold the writer to a different level. I write as a perfunctory task, a means to an end. […] - A note to myself about reading, writing, and reflection, or: why it went wrong last time and how to make it not go wrong again.
A couple of years ago, I set myself a challenge to read one book every week, followed by a review that I would then post to this website. This was, as with most arbitrary challenges of this nature, short lived. I burned out after about four weeks, not because I was struggling to read, but […] - Phil Green is Clocked Off- My new podcast!There are certain things that everyone has been doing during this lockdown: Baking bread Shaving their head Making podcasts. Considering I’ve already been doing the first two for years, that only left me with one option. Presenting Phil Green is Clocked Off, a new podcast exploring the wacky world of work! Releasing Tuesdays and Fridays, […]
- The Immigrant Blog 3 – Money Talks.“Work work work work work work” – Rihanna, 2017. It’s been a little while since my last entry in The Immigrant Blog, something I will blame entirely on my new found employment status of, well, actually being employed. The whole process of going from unemployed to employed took me around 3 weeks, which in hindsight […]
- The Immigrant Blog 2 – Finding my feet.
“I’m goin’ fer a walk!” – Peter Price, beloved Liverpool DJ and potential shapeshifting lizard. As somewhat of a self-described rotund fellow, walking is often my physical activity of choice. I’ve never been one for competitive sports, partially out of a socialistic desire to see everyone win, and partially out of a kindness to my […] - The Immigrant Blog
My first week as an immigrant to the USA. - Book Review -Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
Book a Week, week one. Vance’s story of growing up hillbilly is heralded as a unique insight into the working class mindset that led to Brexit and President Trump. I found it readable and relatable, seeing many parallels with my own experience of the area I grew up. While there were times when Vance’s political bias was glaringly obvious, and times when I would have liked him to be somewhat more self-reflective, he shares a story worth reading, in a way that made it enjoyable.
Phillip Green 