Prompts-&-Challenges on A Geek's Life

When A Deed Returns

Mon, 25 May 2020 11:21:02 +0000

For The Sunday Muse Prompt #109, Image “Snow White & Rose Red” by Kerry Darlington

\\\* The kind hearts of the shy and the cheerful make space for the stranger, a traveller quivering in the winter wind, lost, for a moment.

What lies hidden in the dream is that sometimes a good deed travels the world for a season and then returns twice revived, the shy and the cheerful ones saved in return by the stranger who once wandered by.

33. Fifth Day

Sun, 29 Mar 2020 18:40:03 +0000

For the start of Week 5 of the CoE’s #LiveLent Devotional for Lent 2020. Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash

\\\* In the swoosh of the wings of the bald eagle diving to snatch fish from the sea - its sustenance elegantly eked by dint of labour day by day - and the quiet resplendence of the colourful coral, goodness resides; each in its way declaring, this is good, this birthing on the fifth.

Writing Creative Non-Fiction - Assignment #4: On Woolf on Cavendish

Sun, 29 Mar 2020 13:35:57 +0000

This week’s assignment offered a choice of character depictions. I opted to go with reviewing Virginia Woolf’s 1925 essay, The Duchess of Newcastle , from The Common Reader First Series . Its subject is Margaret Cavendish the Duchess of Newcastle. I very much enjoyed getting to learn about her. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

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It is difficult to come away from Virginia Woolf’s essay on the life of Margaret Cavendish with anything but a sense of admiration for the person the Duchess of Newcastle was: a libertarian who lived life on her own terms, a prodigious thinker, prolific writer and designer, all-round force of nature and perhaps proto-feminist. What is even more remarkable about her life is the context within which it was lived, times which seen from the lofty, enlightened heights of our 21st-century sofas seem like the dark ages. Given the latitude to explore and later express a non traditional interpretation of the roles of daughter and wife by both her mother and husband, we get the sense that virtually every thought she had was encouraged and articulated in some shape or form with no attempt to self-censure. It helped perhaps that there were no children to encumber her free spirit. Given Virginia Woolf’s own life and character – and reputation for being a free spirit of sorts too - the largely positive portrayal here does beg the question of objectivity given the tendency in all of us to eulogise those who inspire us and worship them as heroes.

Writing Creative Non-Fiction - Assignment #3: An Interview of Sorts

Sat, 14 Mar 2020 23:11:00 +0000

This week’s assignment was to interview someone, summarizing what we learned about them in 300 to 500 words. Here goes.. Image by Clint McKoy on Unsplash

\\\* R was hunched over his phone typing furiously when I pushed the door open and walked into the restaurant, one of the many that dot the roadside on this corner of the seaside boulevard. I was three minutes late but he, ever the most punctual of people, had arrived early and was in the middle of typing an acerbic note to me.

Writing Creative Non-Fiction - Assignment #2: On Detail and Deduction

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 07:03:17 +0000

Last week’s assignment was to take a look at an image and attempt to deduce and interpret what it is about from the details one can see. I went for the image above, Jan van Eyck’s Portrait of Arnolfini. Here goes.

\\\* What strikes me the first time I look at the picture is how young and frail she looks. With eyes looking downwards and away from his face, as though in deference, one gets the impression that she feels entirely in his power, her demeanour almost apologising for intruding into his space. He, on the other hand, has that stance that screams importance, eyes forward, looking towards the one who has crafted the scene, seeming to declare that he owns everything in sight. I am here and in charge. All this is mine, notice me!

6. Light

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 19:30:03 +0000

For Day 1 of Week 1 of the #LiveLent devotional for Lent.

\\\* Bless our broken and our breaking, these bodies creaking beneath the pressure of a living daily eked out. Bless our riven hearts in all their parts, strewn as it were along the paths we once trod in hope. Let light, by your speaking bring peace Let our shattered things be whole again let hope with light spring, again.

A Novem For Starlight

Sun, 23 Feb 2020 15:53:44 +0000

For the Poetic Aside Prompt #516 and the Novem poetic form. Not strictly interpreted though… \\\* Come bask beneath the starlight. Yield yourself to Time’s

gift of colour splashed across night’s canvas. Come here,

Hear the whisper of nature’s song. Ponder in awe.

Week Two

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 14:30:17 +0000

Between a super busy week at work and beginning to pack up my life for an upcoming move, I made slow going of studying this week, hence the lateness of this week’s wrap-up. A highlight was receiving largely positive feedback on my first assignment, an exercise in people-watching which took me to a city centre Burger King.

This week’s learning focus was research; tips and tricks for getting beneath the skin of a place to understand the wider context behind the story we’re trying to tell and to ground it in facts and truths. Memory being as fickle as it can be, there was rightly a focus on building systems for capturing details about the people, places and things we write about. Upon reflection, some of the great essayists who have inspired me on this journey have documented their own systems for doing just this including David Sedaris and Ryan Holiday (both of whom have inspired Austin Kleon) to name a few. Also introduced this week were a number of tools: brainstorming (a la mind maps of ideas around a central topic) and foot stepping, physically visiting the area one wishes to write about to absorb its very essence into one’s mind. That I suspect will be very useful over the next few years as I travel more.

Writing Creative Non-Fiction - Assignment #1: People Watching

Fri, 14 Feb 2020 12:57:36 +0000

Last week was about thinking about the underlying reasons for writing, this week was starting off on the journey towards sharpening our powers of observation, the idea being to hone our ability to find stories in the quotidian. A city-centre eatery late one night was my muse.

\\\* It is a little after 8.30pm when the smell of French fries wafting in through the door draws me in. The first thing that strikes me as I stride through the door is how empty it looks, the bulk of the two-storied structure being cordoned off, with only the small section to the right of the counter open for use. I find the emptiness surprising given it is next to a major bus station and right in the centre of town. As I wait for the chance to order, I find myself behind three people, all decked out in the garb of people dressed to brace the cold, with the brightly coloured logo of a food delivery service gracing the insulated bags they hold.

Together...

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 04:30:57 +0000

For The Sunday Muse prompt #79 and Wordle 472

\\\* Sometimes beautiful things can dance in the light - the dainty and the dense chiming together, their hum heavy with intent as it probes the edge between the steady and the sublime. In washing the raw hide of of a dead gazelle with salt there is a saving from its struggle with putrefaction, a prayer for forgiveness, for absolution for the crime of taking by brute force. Here on the edge of the things we think we know the dainty and the dense become as one, both reduced to subsisting at the mercy of the things which hold everything together.

Freedom

Tue, 29 Jan 2019 11:14:33 +0000

For The Sunday Muse prompt #40 and The Sunday Whirl Wordle 388. In The Middle of Freedom, Image Source.

\\\* My fingers mould the pliant clay beneath the surface of this puddle into an image of a memory; each mound of earth rubbed round between my fingers a portion of a story emerging like birds set free from a gilded cage. The memory is a chain anchoring the fluid present to the stable past. It pulses like a thing that lives - somehow more alive with freedom than at first it would seem.

Call of the Wild

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 11:57:54 +0000

For The Sunday Muse #39 and Wordle 387 from The Sunday Whirl. Image Source.

\\\* Here in the shadow Of despair, loneliness Hangs in the air like A wet coat, the silence Like the weight of pebbles Beneath which which one sags, Broken at the knees.

Each step towards The distant light is a prayer Of repenting, for forgetting What love in the wild Feels like.

Step by step, walk after walk We are making this world Whole again, heeding the Inner call to become Wild and free again.

Guardian

Tue, 08 Jan 2019 11:13:38 +0000

“Guardian” by Chie Yoshii, for The Sunday Muse #37 and The Sunday Whirl Wordle 385 prompts:

\\\* She perches on your shoulder This invisible guardian of the night Her voice a quiet word Whispered in your ear Barely heard above the din The way text, lightly etched On a slab of stone would look In the shimmer of dusk.

A dream deferred cannot slip back Into a sleepless mind. Once a butterfly’s eyes Have seen the light of freedom; Once its kicks have set it free From the caul of the caterpillar It cannot become a larva again.

Horizons

Thu, 03 Jan 2019 11:27:48 +0000

For Sunday Muse #36 and The Sunday Whirl Wordle 384

\\\* The call of the future comes from across the border bringing hope to this poor, tired pilgrim- slouched beneath the weight of an open promise and the remains of failures past.

Tomorrow is uncertain, not promised but staying still wastes today so with intent I risk safety to seek the joy beyond the flood plains of seven rivers and the welcome of a home where hypocrisy is no more.

Wordle 382: About Town

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 09:33:38 +0000

Wordle 382:

\\\*

We brave the howl ing wind, wincing on the odd occasion when its icy fingers somehow reach within the folds of our coats to touch our necks. Along the snow covered streets, the children play, their shrieks of joy as they spin again and again piercing the air a hundred hundred times until they drop with exhaustion. From the coffee shop around the corner, different caramel drizzled drinks bring back their strength. This is the plan, to - with any luck - keep them so occupied that all they can do on the train home is sleep, so we get some peace and quiet.

Wordle 381: Half Dead

Thu, 13 Dec 2018 11:01:24 +0000

For Wordle 381: --- Last night they gathered with intent, forty-eight memo s a lingering stench that could no longer be shrug ged away. Behind the bluster of “doing the right thing” was the lure of the key s to Number 10.

When the frame is badly broken can the picture be restored? Is the crime of lying word s so great that everything is irretrievably broken and no longer of use? Inside, the Wounded lived to fight another day; outside the circling hyenas beaten back for a season will return.

Wordle 380

Thu, 06 Dec 2018 13:06:02 +0000

For Wordle 380:

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This entity - bare arms rippling with intent- pulls victory out of thin air. Time and time again, the potential for losing one’s head in a flurry of jabs is overcome by the evidence of winning, the one thing missing in this me being a fear that flinches before the rolling fists land. This is how it ends- victory snatched from the claws of loss when we decide.

Things Liked: A List

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 18:57:28 +0000

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Coffee, particularly when it is -5 deg C outside
Fried chicken, in all its various incarnations
Digging out the right answer to a particularly difficult question
Music, particularly ones which take me back memory lane
Handwritten notes (when received)

I Write Because...

Tue, 04 Dec 2018 19:57:30 +0000

Photo by Hannah Olinger on Unsplash

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One of my earliest memories of doing stuff with my mother is of a newspaper cutout, sheets of paper and her sitting beside me encouraging me to apply whatever iota of critical thinking I could summon to whatever was the task of the day, usually some Close Up essay competition or the other. I don’t recall us ever submitting any of those, the discipline of wrestling thoughts into semi-coherent arguments perhaps being the point of the entire exercise. That sense of writing as a vehicle for thinking aloud about a subject is one that has stayed with me over the years.

31 Days of Journaling, Day 31: Wrapping Up

Sat, 01 Dec 2018 11:15:40 +0000

It has been a fascinating month going through the Art of Manliness Jump-start your Journaling 31 Day Challenge. I suppose the key is in the challenge bit because for what it is worth it wasn’t the easiest of things to complete. A few themes came at me time and time again, mainly related to my relationships with people and how much (or how little) I ave allowed others into my deepest space. That (friends and brothers, mentors, my romantic relationship and a few others) is one of the key focus areas for the next year, which I have captioned The Year of Living Intentionally.

31 Days of Journaling, Day 30: Thankful For...

Fri, 30 Nov 2018 20:03:58 +0000

Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash

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For the Day 30 prompt. Thankful for:

Life: Given how many people I know who died during the course of the year, both young and old
S: Who chose to accept me, warts and all
T&M: Who continue to hold down the fort on the family front through what have sometimes been testing times.
Books: For the opportunity to slip into them away from the world
Friends: Who have stuck with me through the years
Work: Which in spite of a growing sense of dissatisfaction still pays the bills.
Travel: The chance to get away from it all from time to time.

31 Days of Journaling, Day 29: Something I am Proud Of

Thu, 29 Nov 2018 19:46:25 +0000

The prompt for Day 29 is to write about one thing that brings you great joy. Here goes.

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A few years ago I would have said that my job was the one thing that gave me great joy, seeing as I felt very strongly that I was contributing and saw my future being very much intertwined with corrosion and materials. For a variety of reasons, including the sense of coasting that I have struggled with over the past year, it is beginning to feel like something I just do, that pays the bills.Trying to suss out the underlying reasons and getting back to a place of excitement about my current role (or something else) is something I have to focus on resolving in the new year!!!

31 Days of Journaling, Day 28: Tools of The Manly Life

Wed, 28 Nov 2018 18:39:38 +0000

Day 28 of the Art of Manliness 31 Days of Journaling Challenge is to gather my tools for a better life. Here goes:

A Mentor: One of the clear gaps I have identified from the past year has been a tendency to isolate myself from people, both at work and in my personal life, one of the impacts of which has been a lack of oversight of my decisions. Mentors, in both my personal and professional lives, are a priority for me over the next year. Two people, EM and CG, come to mind as options for both domains. Engaging them with a view to seeing if this is something they’d like to help me out with is something I have added to my list of things to explore and conclude over the next year.
A Mastermind Group: The AoM folks boil down a Mastermind group into a collection of similar irons which sharpen each other. Through my interactions with my friends in the corrosion business, I’d like to think the intent of this tool is being met already. Carefully selecting a mentor with corrosion expertise who also help provide coverage of this need, I believe.
A Pocket notebook: My evolving journaling practice is loosely aligned to Austin Kleon’s (which is in turn inspired by David Sedaris’s).
Discipline: All of the above require me to get off my backside and develop/ implement a number of habits consistently. Discipline is what will ensure I keep at these till they deliver value in my life. Enough self.

31 Days of Journaling, Day 27: My Place

Tue, 27 Nov 2018 18:11:11 +0000

The folk at AoM identify eight factors which feed into an assessment of the suitability of where one is at the moment. Given Aberdeen and Byfleet are currently it for me, a table with the pros and cons of each location seemed like a logical place to start. Here goes:

[gdoc key=“https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IZdb5os_AQNEjVBwEAscnsPzq2u2uqcj11jiaMktMBQ/edit?usp=sharing”]

31 Days of Journaling, Day 24: Memento mori.

Sat, 24 Nov 2018 08:30:27 +0000

Photo by Deleece Cook on Unsplash

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Remember you will die…. Death puts everything into perspective, you can’t take anything away with you and once you’re dead you’re lost to everyone on this side of the divide. This begs the question of what I am living my life for, whose approval am I bending over backwards to please, against my principles. And perhaps most importantly, am I living my life in a way that makes sense in light of what I think is a non-physical reality on the other side?

31 Days of Journaling, Day 23: My Distractions

Fri, 23 Nov 2018 18:50:08 +0000

My distractions in no particular order:

My phone with what it drags in (Twitter, Instagram)
TV, particularly media consumption (Chicago PD, NCIS in all its guises and Chicago Med being a few of the things I burn hours watching)
My (paper) notebook, a source of distraction for all the times I rewrite my to do list and obsess over the perfect productivity system instead of just getting things done

To manage these I am trying to control access, by setting up my phone to automatically turn itself off at night and restart in the morning, only watching TV at weekends and not fussing over the quality of my to do list. One more on the watch list over the next few days/ weeks I guess…

31 Days of Journaling, Day 22: If I Won A (Small) Lottery

Thu, 22 Nov 2018 20:37:01 +0000

Playing football manager doesn’t count I suspect so I’ll have to go with the next thing which I am finding is playing around with data in Jupyter. This is something I am enjoying so much that I am seriously wondering if Corrosion & Materials remain a strong force in my future. Unfortunately I haven’t learned enough of the data science domain for it to be my main stay going forward, but if money were no object, that would be where I would go. That much is not uncertain.

31 Days of Journaling, Day 21: One small thing

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 17:32:45 +0000

Image Source: AskMen

A recurring theme on my yearly lists is to lose weight. Save for a big push in 2012/13 when I went from just under 100 kg to 82 kg, performance has been topsy-turvy. Things are decidedly far form ideal at the moment, seeing as I currently come in just under 94 kg at the moment. This all feeds the one small thing I want to focus on over the next few weeks, adding one push up a day to my morning routine. If all goes well, by the end of the year I should be up to 39 push ups each morning.

31 Days of Journaling, Day 19: On Romance, A Reflection

Mon, 19 Nov 2018 19:10:44 +0000

For Day 19 of The Art of Manliness Journaling Prompts

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The one romantic relationship I am in is with S, my wife of just over a year. As highlighted in my response to the Day 5 prompt, it has hardly being the smoothest of relationships, not helped by living apart and both being very busy people.

The one area I’d like to improve is improving the quality of our relationship primarily from the perspective of making clear to her that she is the priority in my life and that every other thing including work and sustenance lies in second place. To achieve this my intention is to communicate better with her, making the effort to stay in touch on a daily basis regardless of what pressures work and life pose. Fingers crossed.

31 Days of Journaling, Day 14: Something Consumed

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 20:37:02 +0000

[caption id=“attachment_178” align=“alignnone” width=“2976”]

For Day 14

Currently on my reading list is David Leeming’s tell all biography of James Baldwin. Whilst it is a hefty read - and I have spent the most of the last month plodding through it between doing life and work - a few themes have stood out, including the influence of church, the civil rights movement and his struggle with his sexuality.

The more I read this, the clearer just how great an intellect he was is under scored in my mind. I’ll never read Go Tell It On The Mountain or Giovanni’s Room the same way again.

31 Days of Journaling, Day 13: On My Mind, A Brain Dump

Tue, 13 Nov 2018 18:50:19 +0000

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

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For Day 13 of the AoM 31 Days of Journaling Challenge; A Brain Dump using the GTD Trigger List.

Work Projects Started Not Completed
- DL Management Strategy
- OFC Transition
- CCMTs & CCMT Action Management
- UKCS TAR Work Programs
- T T-A Communication File Note
- Area Reviews
- S Area PW Failures RCFA
Work Projects That Need To Be Started
- CMS Year End Review
- T CCMT Preparation
- 2019 PoB Requirements for UKCS Projects
- 2018 Spend Reconciliation
- 2017/18 Appraisal
Personal Projects Started Not Completed
- archive.rustgeek.me relaunch
- News31 EoY Video Preparation
- News31 EoY Review for magazine
Personal Projects Yet To Start
- archive.rustgeek.me theme modifications
- 2019 objectives and planning
- Alicante Trip with S

31 Days of Journaling, Day 11: A Band of Brothers

Sun, 11 Nov 2018 10:14:40 +0000

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

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For Day 11, the question is “Do you have a gang of friends who push and support you? If not, how could you make some good friends?” As with all the questions so far which have related to friends, I’ll have to hold my hand up again and say this is an area where significant improvement is required. That being said, I have a number of acquaintances in this city with whom I could be better engaged. A number of them are in the same season of life as I am which bodes well I suspect for our being able to band together for mutual support. First things first then, I’ll look to schedule a catchup with a couple of the guys, particularly D and R.

31 Days Of Journaling, Day 9: My Day

Fri, 09 Nov 2018 11:47:37 +0000

Day 9: My Day

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Up at 4.42 AM and unable to go back to sleep. Meetings with senior leadership at work on my mind.
Played around with some CSS for some modifications I have been mulling over for this blog
Finally out of bed at 6.00 AM to start prepping for work.
Off to work at 7.00 AM, glad for some respite from what has been terrible weather. Relief ends up short lived because it opens up again half way through.
Arrive at work wet and cold at about 7.30 AM.
Arrival routine kicks in; cup of coffee, read and respond to emails, catch up quickly with office mates.
First hour spent reading up on latest version of slide deck for meeting, then attending final dry run
In between, I sort out delivery of equipment required for a mobilisation offshore in two weeks.
Spend rest of the morning in chasing final bits of data for meeting.
Lunch @ 12 NOON, quick walk to Boots at Union Square for a sandwich, pepsi max, protein pot and two snack bars (meal deal)
Back at 12.30 PM for final check of meeting requirements and then into meeting.
Meeting from 1 to 3, a bit of a grilling but I feel like we do ok. A number of things to follow up on even though the consensus seems to be that it has been yet more talking shop. Hopefully real behavioural change kicks off after this.
After the high of the meeting, rest of the day is an anti-climax of sorts. catch up with R for the first time this week now that I can catch my breath.
Eventually it is 4.30 PM and home time. Walk home and arrive at 5.00PM
Dinner, more CSS modifications and then soon it is sleep time.

31 Days of Journaling, Day 8: On Work, A Timeline

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 21:08:18 +0000

For Day 8 of the AoM 31 Day Journaling Challenge: Reflect on Your Career.

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Work for me has focused on materials, particularly ferrous ones, and how they perform in a variety of oil and gas environments, on two continents; Africa of my birth and Europe where I have spent the last few years. My journey began in December of 2003 with being hired straight out of University in 2003 as a trainee engineer through progressing via a number of roles in various aspects of the corrosion and materials discipline and eventually leaving in October of 2008, thanks to a mixture of burn out and the opportunity to return to the university for graduate studies. Since graduating in July of 2009, I’ve gotten back into the Corrosion & Materials field first with a service provider and latterly with an oil & gas production company where I am Corrosion & Materials Technical Authority.

31 Days of Journaling, Day 7: A Reflection

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 15:55:49 +0000

Image source: rawpixel @ unsplash

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And so comes Day 7. Whilst those who believe in numerology think seven is the number of perfection, the past few days have been anything but perfect. What they have been though is an opportunity to flex thinking and writing muscles which I haven’t used in a while, which were to put it bluntly beginning to atrophy.

The general idea has been to try to block time out in the morning- between waking up, devotions and heading out to work- to pen a few words in response to the challenge of the day. There have been hits and misses along the way but thankfully I’ve managed to show up. Here’s to discipline winning through and birthing delight in the end.

31 Days Of Journaling, Day 6: Six Word Memoir

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 11:07:45 +0000

Photo by Tom Grimbert on Unsplash. For Day 6 of the AoM 31 Day Journaling Challenge.

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My six word memoir:

Global Thinker, Local Contributor. Lived Intentionally.

31 Days of Journaling, Day 3: One Thing

Sat, 03 Nov 2018 11:33:33 +0000

For the prompt for Day 3 of the 31 Day Journaling Challenge at The Art of Manliness

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Alongside a regular practice, building a regular practice of prayer and bible study has been one of the things I have struggled most with over the years and which has come up again in this latest iteration of beginning again.

As for actual steps this time, I have bought a copy of 90 Days in Judges, Galatians and Ephesians by Tim Keller and Richard Coekin, a notebook and a pack of hibiscus tea, the intent being to make that part of a new morning routine in which I brew a cup of tea and settle in to read the assigned reading of the day and write notes in my mew black book. Two days in already, I hope I can make it to the 90 and then beyond.

31 Days of Journaling, Day 2: On Manliness

Fri, 02 Nov 2018 11:09:09 +0000

For the Day 2 prompt from The Art of Manliness’ Jumpstart Your Journaling 31 Day Challenge

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One of the frameworks which has most defined my thinking about Manhood came to me many years ago in the form of an Al Mohler article on Boundless, in which he suggested 13 marks which defined mature manhood in his opinion. Given his background, that his views were based very squarely on Christian Conservative ideals was not surprising, and were very much aligned with my thoughts at the time, seeing I was (and perhaps still am) very much of a similar spiritual bent. Roles (husband, father), Responsibility, Leadership, morals and ethics and an ability to provide for a family all feature prominently in his piece, which morphed into a small book eventually.

31 Days of Journaling, Day 1: Why Journal?

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 11:45:57 +0000

Image Source: Heartwoods

It feels like a good time to try to develop a regular practice of journaling. For one there is the need to reflect properly on my latest attempt at rebooting, as well as the plethora of other more intelligent folk who think it is a good thing: David Sedaris, Austin Kleon, Michael Hyatt, Samuel Pepys, David Thoureau to name a few. The benefits are many, ranging from providing opportunities to reflect on life, a record of one’s day (both for the individual and for posterity) and also a source of material for future creative writing pursuits.