Picture of a nametag that says 'Hello my name is Joe'

Since 2021 I have written a yearly introduction post.

I can’t quite put down the reason in words. It’s something to do with the new year, and something to do with the nature of social media (‘you can know every detail of someone’s dark trauma but be surprised they turn out to have a dog’).

Hi, my name is Joseph Reddington. You can call me Joe. I have no middle name, and have never wanted for one.

I live in Luton with my partner and two children. There are no pets. I like the house and it’s getting nicer. We currently pour all our disposable income into rebuilding and upgrading it. I’m gradually building up more and more tools and equipment in the garage. I have been vegan since 2010. I am very frugal: we are a household of reusable nappies, second-hand toys and books, and well-worn clothes. Our cars, phones, TVs and computers are modest, bordering on miserly (actually this changed this year - I have a reasonably impressive MacBook from work and my home PC is at least competitive. I am far too frugal for my own good and end up having a lot of stuff that is low-quality or broken.

I am difficult to talk to: I am precise, literal, direct, and combative. I am almost entirely incapable of small talk, I will also assume you are interested in my broad collection of obscure facts unless I’m told otherwise. People tend to only ask my advice if they are looking for the advice: “Tell them to piss off”. I am working on all of this, but so far I have been unsuccessful.

I tend to be factually very open, but emotionally very closed. My to-do list, internet history, and, indeed, most other factual bits of my life are public, but I generally fail to articulate ‘why I am angry’ to myself, let alone the general public.

I have issues with negativity, and a talent, nay gift for seeing the worst possible world. I have various tricks to compensate but they are at best a sticking plaster rather than a cure. I think The Lego Movie is the greatest movie of all time and Spider-Verse is a close second.

My favourite dinosaur is Ankylosaurus.

I am surprised to find I have hobbies although some are moving from ‘enjoys’ to ‘guilty for not doing it more’: I enjoy both photography and cookery, and am having particular fun because I start from almost no knowledge in either. This year I’ve been learning a reasonable amount about electronics and 3D printing, and doing a decent amount of Wikipedia editing.

Work: I’m a lecturer in the Information Security Department of Royal Holloway. I previously ran a charity, which is currently suspended in the hope that money will be found. I have an excellent group of colleagues at Royal Holloway and I enjoy the work.

I wrote a book called “Advanced Memory Palaces” it is available at very few good bookshops, but you can buy it on Amazon. It earns about a hundred pounds a month in royalties which is about ninety five pounds more than I expected when writing it. I am halfway through writing a second for the second year running.

I have two children. Nova is nearly eight and Leo is five and a half. Leo spent the first month of life at Great Ormond Street and that is something I keep incorrectly thinking I’ve processed. I refuse, refuse to be negative about them. Nova enjoys gymnastics and asking questions; Leo enjoys setting traps and being funny.

I lost a brother during Covid. I have another brother, and a sister. My younger brother has complex needs and has a staff team that look after him. That officially makes me a ‘glass sibling’ and I am mildly active in groups that work with or talk to other glass siblings.

The kids cycle to school every day and I run with them. This has got a lot harder since Leo really got the hang of cycling. I feel remarkably unfit at the moment but I’ve been to the gym, ran, or cycled quite a lot this year. Generally I consider myself ‘in shape’ if I’m regularly going to Judo. Most of the time my exercise is an exercise bike that I’ve set up in front of a PS4.

I wear glasses. The image is from https://newmediarockstars.com/hello-my-name-is-joe/. I have strong opinions about people citing sources. I read a reasonably large amount. I enjoy watching films but increasingly get highly irritable at episodic television.
There is a big pile of unread books on my bookshelf. I have a blog at https://joereddington.github.io/, where there are 250ish articles. That’s 30 more than this time last year.

There’s very little in this about work- but there is also almost nothing about my partner or our children. That’s by design - but not in a way I can articulate. The best I can say right now is this is a “things you might not know” document.