first published on Feb 8th, 2019 I’m not good at deciding. I say I’ll do something and I carry on in that vein for a while, faithful to a settled idea, that it’s the right thing, that I made the “right” decision: perhaps for days, months, years, decades; obedient to that decision, comfortable in its… Continue reading Getting clear at last
Category: work
Notes on the Design of Form, Part 1
I posted this on another site, on Jan 29th, ’23, not long before being rushed to hospital for a diagnosis and tricky spinal operation. Now, there's "all the time in the world" to get the job done properly; so long as impatience doesn't get the better of doing a proper job. Many years ago, when… Continue reading Notes on the Design of Form, Part 1
Quality Management Under the Sea
In 1993 I was contracted to Eurotunnel, based on its offices in Folkestone. Didn't have much to do, just attend various weekly meetings, so I had times for creative initiatives, not all of which were adopted by our Director, Jacques Rossi, a kind of noble Corsican with grand ideas, like his charismatic compatriot Bonaparte, but… Continue reading Quality Management Under the Sea
Brochure design
Some years ago I was commissioned to produce a brochure for the church of St Barnabas in Bexhill-on-Sea. You'll see from its Facebook page that it's still keen on attracting worshippers (or mere visitors) with all kinds of colourful pictures. The invitation came through my sister. I'd done a bit of design and type-setting for… Continue reading Brochure design
Home Journal…
written on 9th August, 2001, as an imaginary letter to a friend I worked with at the time, and who lived in Amersham, near the Old Town. It was she who influenced me to be interested in angels ...of Wasps, Angels and Field-Mice I write this in the garden, after our meal at ASK. The… Continue reading Home Journal…
Like an Artist’s Brush
Originally posted on Blogger, February 19th 2010 I really haven’t got time to write anything here. This makes it all the more important to do it anyway. I write in my blog for the same reason others do—to discover what I really think. Think? I’m not referring to “detached thought”, that attempt to be rational… Continue reading Like an Artist’s Brush
Rumours & Resignations
When I wrote this in March this year, it was prompted by finding I had a duplicate CD. But there's an interesting story of my months working there which remains vivid in my mind but never written up in any form. In the end it was humiliating, to the point where I pleaded ill-health, and… Continue reading Rumours & Resignations
On Having No Ambition …
... it didn't come from faith as such, like a surrender to God's will . . . but from time to time I've definitely felt an inner guidance. You could call it inspiration, intuition, intimations, whisperings, angel messages. As mentioned in dozens of posts. Later: it's midnight, time to go downstairs to print the latest… Continue reading On Having No Ambition …
Merry Christmas, Messrs Deming
This post is dedicated with thanks to the late W. Edwards Deming, also his living namesakes Burr & Raymond, who may be related in some way, or might see in themselves some family resemblance to him. It’s intended as a quick stocking-stuffer or stopgap—the post I planned refuses to come. Even when I have nothing… Continue reading Merry Christmas, Messrs Deming
Prophetic words from 1976
In 1976 when I wrote the essay below for a competition, it was already possible to link computers by telephone line, but an international structure, eventually called the Internet, wasn’t established till 6 years later. Its use was limited to academics and technical types keeping in touch, till Tim Berners-Lee invented the World-Wide Web, nine… Continue reading Prophetic words from 1976
Gerrards Cross
My wanderings usually take me through wild footpaths and unpretentious housing estates. I’ve had no occasion to visit the village of Gerrards Cross, which “has a reputation for being very upmarket and exclusive, with house prices being considerably higher than average. Located in the commuter belt of London, the village is the most expensive postcode… Continue reading Gerrards Cross
Not Knowing
I have just decided, on behalf of humanity as a whole, that not knowing is good. In any event, it pervades our lives as a fact. How many times a day do we say, “You never know;” or “God knows,” with its unsaid “(I don’t)”? To endorse the virtue of uncertainty, I finally stopped dithering… Continue reading Not Knowing
User-friendly
I really haven’t got time to write anything here. This makes it all the more important to do it anyway, for I write to discover what I really think. Think? I’m not referring to “detached thought”, that attempt to be rational that we learn as a trick, as a performing seal balances a beach-ball on… Continue reading User-friendly
Night and Day
If Day is the realm of Nature, then Night—at any rate to this brain, at this hour of darkness, still a long way from dawn—is the domain of artificiality. There are other claimants to the imperial mantle of Night. The most democratic, the winner of the majority vote, is Sleep. But I am interested in… Continue reading Night and Day
The Folly of a Clown
a long-lost post How much of human life is folly? Dare one even ask? If I’m an employee, I have only to utter some magic words: “It doesn’t matter, so long as they are paying me.” Or, if I’m an entrepreneur: “It doesn’t matter, so long as it makes money”. Thus we and the mess… Continue reading The Folly of a Clown
We Create Worlds
After my last post, I’ve been drawn to philosophical speculation. How can we talk of one world, except in given contexts, such as world cocoa prices? How can you ask whether there is hope for the world? I would answer, “Whose world are you talking about?” Each of us sees a different world of experience;… Continue reading We Create Worlds
Risk assessment
Restored on 6th September 2024. Looking in a shoebox of old software packages on CD I discovered this, meaning I'm now able to use my old Access applications again, including one I designed to facilitate an organization to assess its risks and apply for ISO 9001 certification, for which I was in theory a licensed… Continue reading Risk assessment
Intrinsic goodness
Back in the Sixties, I first came across some mysterious expressions from the other side of the Atlantic. I was working for a British company whose main rival was IBM. Both companies had built up a customer base selling punched-card equipment based on the nineteenth-century inventions of Herman Hollerith and his one-time colleague James Powers.… Continue reading Intrinsic goodness
Free as a bird
Preface Ghetufool has given me permission to publish his short story here. His pen-name indicates modesty but not in the way you may think: “ghetu phool” is the Bengali for calotropis gigantea, a wayside wildflower. We have collaborated for a year or so (he writes, I edit). You may have seen a brief quote from… Continue reading Free as a bird
Leaving Space on the Stage
A new male temp has joined the office. He’s large, grey-haired, about my age. He demonstrates in every word and action that an old clown is more pathetic than a young one. His sense of self-importance might have a certain charm if he were an eight-year-old. There is nothing that he does not boast about.… Continue reading Leaving Space on the Stage
Efficacious Rituals
MaxiRam Castle* is beginning to accept me as one of its own. I’d been entering this beehive via Reception, which has its ritual ways of making sure visitors are not wasps in disguise, whilst honouring them with attractive young ladies, wood, leather, a stylish lobby and real coffee. Now I come in by the other… Continue reading Efficacious Rituals
Fleeing the Coop
My two linked home computers* are dying, but on one I can read emails and on the other I can post here, though I haven’t bothered swapping the keyboards so it’s hard to type with my fingers fitting to the keys like claws. Normally I use a Microsoft “Natural” Keyboard, and once you’re used that,… Continue reading Fleeing the Coop
Witchcraft?
It’s been quite a week, the first I’ve worked full-time in an office for ten years. As it happens it’s the same company which took me on in 1965 (my first real job) and trained me in punched card equipment. These had been invented by Herman Hollerith and James Powers to speed up the US… Continue reading Witchcraft?
Battery Hen
Babylon town is not without footpaths, so I took my dictaphone for a walk and recorded some reflections in my lunch break. “My role is to provide computer support to an international company, let’s call it MaxiRam, to manage a logistical problem. I’m hoping that in return they will help manage my own logistical problem,… Continue reading Battery Hen
New Morning
In the last few days something happened to me. It felt as though “I have found my power”. In 1972 I read some shortened English version of Valmiki’s Ramayana, which if my memory is not distorted began with some yogis competing for “powers” (called siddhis) through fierce meditation, zealous fasting and strenuous renunciation. Looking back,… Continue reading New Morning
Memorable Achievements?
we were living at 78b West Wycombe Road, the upstairs flat. We'd installed a table in a corner of the bay window to put our two newly-bought second=hand computers. I set up a website perpetual-lab.blogspot.com, and often drew inspiration by looking a the sky or the scenes below. Once again I am summoned to an… Continue reading Memorable Achievements?
Woodland day trip
I’ve spoken a couple of times in this blog about “Cosmic Ordering”, though I prefer to use the less presumptuous phrase “Asking the Universe”. It always works for me, but I don’t ask for much, being generally so contented that I don’t want to change anything. A few weeks ago I was feeling frustrated with… Continue reading Woodland day trip