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Be prepared…
…unlike me. I currently drive a Ford Focus – about 10 years old. I like it. It exhibits more intelligence than any car I’ve driven previously, and, going by my recent experiences, more intelligence than me. About a month ago, I noticed that when I got in to the car and turned it on, the time displayed was roughly the time that I’d last left the car, as if the clock had stopped at that point. “Hmmm…that’s weird…” Prior to…
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Lonely, alone and the tech bros
I’m a member of the Church of England and occasionally lead the people in my church in what are called ‘Intercessionary Prayers’ – sometimes also called the ‘Prayers of the people’. These are prayers written and led by church members each week, and cover a variety of topics – prayers for the church, our leaders and governments (OK…I appreciate that can sometimes be difficult), for the health of people, etc. If you’re interested in further details, take a look at…
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The joys of fishing tackle catalogue porn…
I’ve recently been watching a TV show featuring Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer called ‘Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing’ . As is often the case with me, I’m late to the game and have found I have about 6 series to watch… In each episode our heroes literally go fishing and we share the experience, including the conversations – both funny and profound – and it is a wonderfully relaxing way to spend half an hour. There is a gentleness…
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Don’t give up…
“Do not give up. A problem proves its worth by fighting back.” –FAN CHUNG I encountered this quotation a few weeks ago. The author, a mathematician concerned primarily with graph theory, uses this quotation to encourage her students to persevere with a mathematical problem even when the going gets tough. Her thesis is that if the problem’s worth solving, it will give you a hard time doing it. Now – I’m no mathematician, but
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There’s something in my eye…
I have always been prone to crying through most of my adult life. I’ve never been one to boast of a stiff upper lip – I can hang on under certain circumstances but I will express my emotions when required. And sometimes – I just like a good cry. Music, books, films, TV shows are all likely to trigger strong emotions in me. Oddly enough, I don’t always respond in the same way to the same trigger. I recently watched…
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The long-lost book…
This isn’t a post about a book that I’ve mislaid, or lent to someone and never got back. This is about a book that I should have written, but didn’t. A few months ago I was sorting through some files in my study. Whilst I have a couple of small filing cabinets, they don’t really contain many files. They contain a geiger counter, some stationary, my father’s old stamp collection, a load of network cables…basically, anything BUT files. But, in…
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Relevance
“The new year arrived and I realized i lived past my relevance…” A few weeks ago I came across the above quotation. Much to my embarrassment I didn’t note where it came from, but I get the feeling that it was the first line of a poem. The second part of this line – ‘…but not my usefulness’ is somewhat more hopeful, but it’s not what I want to talk about here. Be prepared – this is going to be…
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Waiting for Blog Posts
OK – another few months have passed…. John Lennon is reputed to have said ‘Life is what happens when you’re making other plans‘. There is also the old saying ‘Man plans, God laughs‘. And then there’s ‘Joe is really an idle, easily distracted procrastinator.‘ You may choose your own reason why I haven’t posted. Today, in a valiant effort to make this site look something like my favourite writing environment, I sat down with coffee, chatGPT, the WordPress Twenty Twentyfive…