I'm no doubt just another doting father, blinded by paternal bias, but I'm completely blown away by our 18-month-old's first crack at fingerpainting. Makes me want to have a go myself, and stick a metaphorical middle finger up to my horror-show of an art teacher, who killed any enthusiasm I may have had for the subject. Bit of advice kids: never let your teacher overhear that you think they're a bit shit at the subject they're teaching.

Stephen was gracious enough to accept an Award from .net magazine - the publication I currently edit - for 'Web personality of the year'. He was a consummate pro, did it in one take, and was then good enough to sit down with me for a fairly lengthy interview (which will be appearing in issue 200 of .net).

Anyway, if you'd like to see a hungover Stephen Fry accepting an Award from a bald magazine editor, simply check out the video below.

As a kid, I did a few illegal things. I'm not going to reveal all of them here, but I will make one shameful revelation: between 1985 and 1992 I borrowed albums from my local library, recorded them on my tape-to-tape, and then returned them to the library. Over time I built up a large collection of utterly illegal music. The librarian knew I recorded music illegally, but at no point was there any talk of revoking my membership; it was accepted. And, during my period of flagrant copyright infringement, I'm pretty sure that the music industry was doing OK whilst my illegitimate activity continued unchecked.
Fast-forward to 2009 (where, by my reckoning, I've now spent around £3,000 on CDs), and Peter Mandelson - a man who billed the taxpayer for nearly £3,000 of work on his constituency home shortly after announcing his decision to stand down as an MP - is getting tough on file-sharers, with proposals that repeat offenders have their net connections cut off. Your kids download music or movies without your knowledge? You get cut off. You inadvertently leave an access point open, and someone downloads illegal files? You get cut off. This proposal is simply unworkable, and former digital enhancement minister Tom Watson says Mandleson's regressive, tide-halting antics are akin to those of Cnut the Great. That's close enough.

This intro first appeared in the October 2009 issue (194) of .net magazine, the world's best-selling publication for web designers and developers.

And next, we make sweeeeet jam

Well, it's that time of year again, and we spent Sunday getting stung, scratched and bitten in search of juicy blackberries. We've been to the same spot for the last four years, and it's always thrown up a bumper crop; this year was no different. In under an hour we managed to collect six pounds of blackberries, which isn't bad going for a pregnant wife and a man with a baby on his back! And the location of our spot? Well, you'll have to find your own. That's all part of the fun, after all.

One of the pictures from Banksy's Bristol exhibition

Open until 31st August, the exhibition features around 100 pieces by Banksy. Some are grand murals, with serious social messages. Some are witty, one-liners, that cut through the shit and get straight to the point. And some are simply there because - let's be honest - when will Banksy ever get the chance to put a dildo in a display case at the Bristol Museum again?!

According to one of the curators we spoke to at the museum, Banksy's representatives approached Museum director Kate Brindley with the idea last year (nine months before the exhibition opened in June). Banksy was clear that if plans for the exhibition leaked, he would pull out of the show, so the majority of those working at the museum only found out about what was actually happening a day before the doors opened to the public. In fact, the majority of them thought that the museum was being used as a set for the latest Harry Potter movie!

The secrecy around the exhibition has helped secure its status as an art 'event', and more than 8,000 visitors a day wait patiently in line for up to two hours. Some art critics have sniffed at the humour in Banksy's work (such as the Times' Rachel Campbell Johnston), but does humour make art any less relevant? I don't think so.

Anyway, the best thing to do is experience the exhibition for yourself, and make up your own mind.

Entry is free, and you can find more information at www.banksy.co.uk, I've also placed a selection of pictures here.

On Friday I was lucky enough to spend the day at the qualifying for the British round of F1, courtesy of hosting provider UKFast. I've been to countless bike races over the last decade, but this was my first experience of F1, and it was a cracking day.

Having just watched the F1 race - which was dull as crap - it's safe to say that two wheels still rule the roost, but I was completely blown away by the sheer volume of the F1 machines. You really have to experience these cars 'in the flesh' to get an idea of the noise they make; had me grinning from ear-to-ear.

The fall of journalism is, indeed, journalists' fault. It is our fault that we did not see the change coming soon enough and ready our craft for the transition. It is our fault that we did not see and exploit—hell, we resisted—all the opportunities new media and new relationships with the public presented.

Then Sarah Lacy, a columnist at TechCrunch, weighed in, and wrote this article on how journalism schools are stuffy, and akin to 'foot binding'. (Seriously, that's what she said.) Sarah's friend did a journalism degree and no longer has a job; Sarah didn't get a journalism degree, and she's, like, writing for TechCrunch. Take that, journo bitch! And Sarah's doing, like, totally awesome interviews with tech GODS such as Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg. Check out her SKILLZ! So there you go, journalism is becoming a dirty word amongst the social media set. Thanks to the internet we're all publishers now, but that doesn't make us all journalists. At this point you may acuse me of hubris, and being a snobby journalist (hey, stop laughing at the back), but I'm far from it. I've commissioned writers with no degree in journalism. In fact, some of the best writers I know have no formal qualifications. But I tell you what they have done, and that's graft. They've grafted their arses off, and they've learned their craft the hard way, just as those people that take years out of their lives to complete journalism degrees and work placements do. I recently filled out a questionaire for a PR proffessional, where one of the questions concerned the affect of social media on journalism. This was my reply:

I trained as a journalist for three years at University, and did various work placements on newspapers for another two. In that time I learned about fact checking, staying on the right side of the law, ethics, story structure, interview technique, and many other skills that take time to learn. I'm not saying these skills can't be acquired, but it takes time. I think the ease of publishing online means that many people are now calling themselves journalists, without knowing the  fundamentals of journalism; that's a concern. However, if you're talking about the ways in which social media can add to a jornalist's arsenal, it's had an amazing effect. Twitter, for example, has enabled non-linear news stories to be covered in truly engaging ways (The Guardian's G20 coverage being a perfect example). Add to this the feedback you can get via social media, and the audio and video tools that enable you to publish content on the go, and there's never been a more exciting time to be a journalist.

And I completely stand by this. In my opinion, journalism isn't dead, and I would never dissuade someone from following their dreams. When it comes to trying to secure a writing gig, that degree could be the thing that swings a job your way. And the future? Well, the publishing medium may have changed, but which are the sites dominating the news landscape? That's right, traditional news organisations that get the internet. So, you may not be seeing your work in print when you finish your degree, but don't give up on journalism just yet - it might come in handy.