Writing
I enjoy writing of all types from technical instructional manuals to journal entries to poetry and more. In many cases this is just a way for me to arrange my thoughts, be able to replicate something I've done, or work through things. For journal entries, it is a way for me to somewhat reliably remember an event. From what I have heard and read, the human brain does not store memories in a "read-only" fashion, so each time you revisit that memory it may change and that change may perpetuate to the next time it is "remembered" and possibly changed again. That is why some of my journal entries end with a note that too much time has passed since the event so I do not trust that all the details would be true at least to my perception at the time. On the other hand, a memory is more than just facts. Sometimes the feelings around a memory or thought will take hold resulting in a short story or an essay. Those are the sorts of things that you will find here. Please enjoy (or not) these brief glimpses into my mind and accounts of certain days in my and my family's life.
- Details
- Written by Karyl F. Stein
- Category: Journal
I put an alarm clock in Ann's room a while ago just because it was around and she seems interested in 1) the time and 2) the weather forecast. (Not that the clock I put in her room would help with the latter, but she has several ways of getting that on her own now. I think that's because she kept asking me about the day's temperatures and got tired of my "beats me" response—I don't pay much attention to forecasts, but did begrudgingly explain some way to look up things on the computer with the caveat that "they may be wrong.")
- Details
- Written by Karyl F. Stein
- Category: Poetry / Lyrics
A little ditty written after getting a little annoyed by the process and procedures for any changes implemented in response to the SOX legislation.
(To the tune of "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" by Pink Floyd)
We don’t need no Unit Test Case.
We don’t need no B-R-S. [Ed. Business Requirements Specification]
No dark audit of our checklist.
Process—leave them devs alone.
Hey process! Leave them devs alone!
All in all it’s just a-nother check in the box.
All in all you’ve got a-nother check in the box.
- Details
- Written by Karyl F. Stein
- Category: Journal
On Labor Day, the kids were away and my parents and I decided to do a bike ride in the late afternoon. It would be like the one I took with William recently and described in an earlier post—through Gallop Park and into Ann Arbor—although a little bit longer.
I was busy cleaning the bathrooms and doing some laundry, (the sorts of exciting things I do when the kids are away), when I realized I was going to be late. No worries, though; we didn’t have much of a schedule to keep. But I was in a bit of a rush to load the bike on the car, change out of the pants I was wearing because they smelled of shower cleaner, and head out. (Danger! Foreshadowing alert!)
- Details
- Written by Karyl F. Stein
- Category: Journal
Ann had two birthday parties to attend yesterday; one of them being a sleep-over. That left William and I to our own devices for several hours. All of us hung out in the morning before Ann’s gatherings and ate lunch before dropping Ann off at her first engagement. William and I ran a couple errands after that, (stopping for a strawberry smoothie at the mall), but afterward spent a good hour in the front yard throwing a football back and forth chatting. That alone would have been great, but it was only the first act of what was to become.
