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You know when I started this blog I had a few ideas about what I wanted to do with it, and then over time I’ve strayed here and meandered there and wandered slightly off track and then more so. And I’ve said ‘I’m going to do more of this’ and ‘less of that’ and then done less of this and more of that and generally used it as a bit of a brain dump for those things I’ve been thinking about or found exciting or irritating enough at the time to think it was worth writing down.

Last night ...

Since I became an anime fan some Japanese words have become engraved into my mind. Even though I'd never try to say them out loud (since I can't say them properly) or normally type them, since I doubt anyone would understand, I always think them. When I think of a word in Japanese it's usually to convey something deeper than I can in English. I gauge my feelings towards something by deciding whether I think something is cute or kawaii. So to me if I think kawaii then it's something super cute since ...

Last night, when I went to bed, I started thinking about this old story I was writing. I was writing it at school mainly out of boredom, in my last year or so. I spent a lot of time browsing Wikipedia looking up Greek mythology, then a couple of other mythologies as well, but mainly Greek. It wasn't for any real reason, I just wanted to know some more of the stories. At that time I had a serious itch to write something, even if it wasn't good, I just wanted to write but I wanted it to be something ...

It is 31 years since I failed, retook and passed my O’Level Maths as a bemused 16 year old who had little idea, beyond the narrow calculations of my experience, about the world and its machinations. I did as little Maths as possible at the time, avoiding it at home, and dreading double maths on a Thursday afternoon. As a young teen I little appreciated that it takes effort to improve in anything worthwhile.

I did get a big clue about learning in those years. A friend, who was pretty ...

My son graduated from high school last Sunday, June 5, 2011. I am very proud of him.

It has been a bit of a journey, getting him to this point. When he was in the fourth grade it began to be apparent that he was struggling in school. His teacher had assigned a research paper which she had broken down into kid sized bites, but still he hadn't done anything. So I got his things together and I helped him get his research done and the paper written. I mean that in the best sense. I didn't ...