Stories
Depression and the Software Developer: The Last Straw
Here’s a story I’ve been keeping on the back burner for almost a year now. I haven’t published it until now, because it still hit too close to home. But this week, I’ve scheduled an interview with Sharon Cathcart, author of In the Eye of the Beholder, which I am currently reading, and a memoir [...]
Creepy Crawlies Everywhere, and Ants and Flies
At the Museum of Science in Boston, the last time I was there, they had a display of cockroaches, big ones. (Similar to the display pictured here, which is from the London Zoo.) Even though the buggies were behind plastic, I felt an urgent need to get out of there as fast possible.
My phobia of [...]
All My NetFlix DVD’s Are Accounted For
Last week, I got the strangest email, and I still can’t quite figure out what to make of it.
N, from the Natural Sciences department at Bentley University, found a sealed NetFlix DVD on a cart in one of the buildings there. She also noticed the corresponding torn-off part of the envelope, the part with the [...]
When Nothing Goes the Way It Ought
This past week, I asked on Facebook, “When NOTHING seems to be going as it should, how do you avoid getting all negative?”
My Facebook friends gave me a number of possible answers, but nothing really hit home, this past Saturday morning in synagogue when we read a selection from First Samuel chapter 1. Suddenly, my [...]
True Stories of Painless Births
A few issues ago, the Human Givens Journal published an interview with Sheila Barratt-Smith, of GentleBirth birth courses (in the UK). In this interview, she tells us about normal, pain-free births.
Now, I’m not a woman, and I’ve never given birth, and both of my daughters experienced complications while being born (so not “normal” births). So [...]
Starting Freelance Writing and Consulting Services
Sometimes I do something so stupid, I amaze even myself.
I wasn’t planning on writing anything for Wishcasting Wednesday this week, and indeed I didn’t, preferring instead to read others’ WW posts. And I actually did read several. “What do you wish to begin?” is what Jamie Ridler asked for this week’s wishcasting prompt. And just [...]
Opening the Door to Your Own Destiny
This morning, after I dropped the Missus off at work, I headed down Washington Street toward Mishawum Road, where I needed to make a left turn in order to get to the highway.
Now, this particular intersection has two left-turn lanes. That is, if you want to make a left turn, you can either get into [...]
A Programmer’s Empowering Daydream
This morning, at my daughter’s sleep study, as we were waking up, I had a profoundly encouraging and empowering daydream. It wasn’t an intentional visualization, something I wanted to see come about, but purely a spontaneous daydream, of the sort that encroaches upon your consciousness in those fuzzy moments just after you awake.
Last night, I [...]
Groped in Good Taste
Jeremy Brooks, looking surprised
A quick anecdote…
Jim “Suldog” Sullivan’s post today about being groped by a woman (and then later, by a drunk man), it reminded me of a “groping” anecdote of my own, one that interestingly didn’t make it into the Love-Idiot book.
I went rollerskating with some friends, in particular, a girl I knew, who [...]
Why I No Longer Belong in a Dilbert Cube
The biggest block of time in my software-development career I spent working in an extraordinary job, a very special place to work, with a very special group of people, for 14 years. Throughout the dot-com boom, I stayed there, ignoring the promises of exciting work and increased salary.
But before I worked there, I tried to [...]