About

Hey, I'm Tom.

I carry dice, a fountain pen, and a watch that only tells the time. I also carry a phone with an AI assistant because my memory is rubbish and notebooks never worked for me.

That's Mint That is where I write about the things I've tried, the things I've kept, and the things I sold because everyone else had one.

The Short Version

I'm a neonatal nurse by trade and a tinkerer by nature. I mod Game Boys, paint Warhammer, hunt for geocaches with my kids, and choose records over playlists. I play retro handhelds because the Steam Deck gave me access to everything and made none of it feel special. I wear a mechanical watch because the Apple Watch was suffocating. I'm moving toward cassettes because streaming eats my relationship with music.

I'm not anti-technology. I carry a PocketAI and a mechanical watch on the same wrist. The difference is, both of them know when to stop talking.

The Longer Version

My route into healthcare wasn't traditional. I left school at 16 with four GCSEs, trained as a mechanic, worked for Chrysler and Dodge for six or seven years, got made redundant in 2008, started a small garage business with a friend, then decided to retrain as a nurse. Did an access course, studied children's nursing, and eventually ended up as an Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner in a level 3 NICU in Liverpool.

That journey shapes how I think about everything. Practical first, theory second, always anchored in real-world application. Whether it's neonatal resuscitation or choosing what's in my pocket, I want to understand why something works, not just that it works.

I'm an NLS instructor, I've taught for NHS England, and I've volunteered in Uganda multiple times with the charity Medcare, where I co-founded a sponsorship initiative called COIN (Children with Ongoing Illnesses in Need) supporting chronically ill children. Teaching is what I do, in and out of work.

How I Think About Stuff

Everything on this site falls into one of three buckets:

Infrastructure — the invisible stuff that just works. My phone, my AI assistant, my banking, my maps. No ideology here, just efficiency.

Controlled friction — where meaning lives. Cassette tapes, vinyl, mechanical watches, retro handhelds, fountain pens, dice, books. These are bounded experiences. They end. That's the point.

Optional noise — the stuff I ration, not ban. Streaming, endless feeds, upgrade cycles. They're not evil. They're just not centre-stage.

I keep infrastructure invisible, I use controlled friction for meaning, and I ration the noise. That's the whole philosophy, really.

Choosing the thing. Making it deliberate. Same as everything I bang on about.