Category: Personal
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The Conversation Problem
The first hint occurred after a meetup. As we trooped off to the pub, everyone split up. Into their pre-existing groups.
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What is the best obituary?
How do you really write the life of another? Will 400 or so words really cover his life? In truth, neither eulogy nor funeral notice nor Dad’s autobiography fully recorded his life. Truly an obituary has no chance.
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Wisdom is a Cappucino
“A small cappuccino with a half sugar, please.” You remembered, she thought as she looked at me. “And a large flat white for me.” $3.95 for the cap and I can’t remember what I paid for mine. But I do recall the wisdom that cappucino bought . Our paths had crossed yet again on of…
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Day 11: The Return
That’s how long it has taken me to settle in. Or rather pick up a pen and write about it. Apart from the incomplete and scattered musings and snippets that pose as poetry. I’ve relocated. To a new job : IT Trainer (similar to but not the same as the past role). To a new…
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Eulogist’s Block
My mother’s ashes were interred today… I’ll visit her later. I probably owe her an explanation for my eulogy but we’ll let it stand. Hopefully this will suffice. Mine included my brother’s and a poem from my son. Which was fortuitous. Because I had eulogist’s block. I couldn’t think of what to say. All I…
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No Kebabs for Dr Jaws
It was ’98 or ’99. Again, at short notice I was asked to set up a laptop. For an external consultant : an interviewee. No problem. Download the standard operating environment. Upgrade and…you need to install Dr Jaws. What the heck is Dr Jaws? Dr Jaws is a screen reader for sight-impaired people : the…
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The Teddy Bear Principle
In September 2020, I received an email. Somewhere in the middle was a story about how a university professor solved enquiries before he received them. By keeping a teddy bear outside his office. Attached to it was a sign, “Ask Teddy.”
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Success? Or Failure? Or Fulfilment?
I am writing occasionally in response to Dangerous Meredith‘s Advent Creativity prompts. Her latest is derived from her pamphlet called The Right Questionand poses the following questions which I’ve answered as a poet and trainer (and technical writer) ‘cos they overlap and are unveiling… “How important are the following to you when you assign values…
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May You Ever (A Response to May You Never)
I wrote a response to Meredith Lewis’ prompt May you never which details how I stopped writing poetry for years. But how I returned can only be described as a subtle gentling. In every role, whether programmer or system manager or desktop support or service manager, I was always writing whether diaries for recollection and…
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May You Never…
I am writing occasionally in response to Dangerous Meredith‘s Advent Creativity prompts. Her latest is titled, May You Never and this quote will suffice: “Today’s challenge is for you to cast your mind back and locate, in your memory, someone who unfairly or unhelpfully sneered at your efforts.“ I heard my daughter’s Elise’s giggle first.…
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The Creativity Thing
I have been inspired by Meredith Lewis’ Advent Calendar and today’s most so which is on creativity Meredith’s Advent Calendar. This is my best response… I can still hear her voice in my head. Although long ago she would have sent away mine, unfortunately. She had spend the last 45 minutes describing her failed novel…
Andrew James Whalan 