Category: Opinions-Editorial
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Just Grandma and Me: A Reminiscence
Perhaps I should have bought the game and computer too! It began with Nicole Matejic. She was reminiscing about her old Apple personal computer experiences. In passing she mentioned the children’s game Just Grandma and Me (based on a popular children’s book). And the next thing I remember is my daughter perched on a stool […]
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Movie Review : Love and Friendship
Midway through watching this movie, I came to two realisations (and then some more). The first was had the purists been present they would have glared me down to stop me from laughing. For Jane Austen isn’t universally acknowledged as the provider of a wholesome laugh. While I do acknowledge there are many sophisticated, clever […]
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Hunt for The Wilder People : Movie Review
It’s 6 o’clock Saturday 11th June 2016. I’ve exited the Event Cinemas in George Street Sydney. I’m sitting on a step scribbling furiously as people pass me by, lights and shadows draping me briefly. I’m too immersed in what I’m doing to notice much else. I’ve just seen Hunt For The Wilder People, the New […]
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More Than A Kiss From Mr Fitzgerald
As a recent and still temporary resident of Sydney, I wanted to meet other writers. And of course to pick up some writing tips from a real-life author. Naturally, the best place and time to do both is a book launch. So there am I, on a pre-east coast low cold and rainy Wednesday (31st May 2016) at […]
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Black Hole Blues (and other songs from outer space)
With a title like that, I thought I was attending a musical event right in the middle of the Sydney Writer’s Festival. Black Hole Blues is music, but not as we know it Jim. I arrived and there was Adam Spencer, interviewing a woman I’d never seen before with an inter galactic background. Janna Levin, […]
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The Man Who Knew Infinity
I should have known about Srinivasa_Ramanujan, the subject of the Man Who Knew Infinity. It is the story of an unknown genius who turned mathematics inside out. But even my mere degree (a statistics major) is not required to appreciate this film. It is Ramanujan’s story that is utterly compelling. An unlearned man, he teaches himself mathematics and then […]
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This Teleconference Has Been Postponed…
At last! Another opportunity to catch up on the backlog of outstanding work. A teleconference! I dialed in, entered the meeting identification, my pin and spoke my name. Then I placed my phone in hands-off mode and muted myself. I knew I was safe because: I wouldn’t be asked to contribute I had very little to […]
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The Daughter – Movie Review
The Australian movie The Daughter is like a wedding present, something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Based on Henrik Ibsen’s play, The Wild Duck, it tells a story both familiar and unfamiliar through a cast of well known actors including Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush, Miranda Otto and Anna Torv followed by Paul Schneider […]
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The Instant Facilitator
Apart from school debating and one lecture presentation, nothing prepared me for my debut as an instant facilitator. I was an attendee for a computer user conference at the World Congress Centre Melbourne at Crowne Plaza. As part of the Queensland branch of the group, I had been asked to introduce each speaker and then […]
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Does The Pen Hear More than the Keyboard?
“I probably won’t be using that.” It wasn’t a derisory or demeaning disclaimer. Just a calm statement: this is not for me. I never was much of a software salesman anyway. I had livened up a not-so-interesting training session by describing an upcoming software feature. It may or may not be in the next future […]
Andrew James Whalan 