He looks at the clock. It reads "5:00". He is a little anxious. "5:15" and he taps his fingers on his desk. His colleagues wonder if woodpeckers ever get headaches with all the tapping they do. Tap. Tap. Tap. It's 5:25. A bead forms on his temple. An ant below drowns in the dead sea.... Continue Reading →
Apple Onsite Repairs?
As I was thinking of getting a MacBook from Apple and bringing it over with me to UWA (University of Western Australia), I decided to take a look at their "AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro/PowerBook". I scanned through the text once quickly, and decided that it wasn't for me. But an asterisk at the... Continue Reading →
The Tricky Business of Identity
"Who are you, really?" asks she. "I am who you think I am." says he. "Don't play games with me." "Who else could I be? Tell me." "I want to know what you think most people think you are." "Popular opinion does not a man make." "A man's identity is only so much as people... Continue Reading →
On Humility
Q: What do you think is your strongest attribute? I would go for humility. Humility is, I find, the best policy. Q: Humility is the best policy? That's interesting. How about honesty? Do you not think that's important? Humility is in itself a lie.
From Dawn to Dusk
If I married a girl called Dawn... It is early morning. Phone rings. "Hi, can I speak to Dawn please?" says she. "Donn speaking," says I. "No, Dawn. I want to speak to Dawn." "Erm, yeah. Donn here." "No, Dawwwn," stresses she. "Oh, Dawwwn," stresses I. "Hold on a minute please." Meanwhile, Dawn's in the... Continue Reading →
NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo stands for the "National Novel Writing Month." I first encountered it through a link from Rachel's blog; finding it interesting enough, I decided to join. Within a month, you're supposed to write a novel of at least 50,000 words. That's almost 2,000 words per day. I'm not normally a fiction writer, but I've written... Continue Reading →
Waltz for Koop
I really should be sleeping now. I had just finished listening to the entire album Waltz for Koop (by Koop), when I thought I'd end the night by listening to Damien Rice's The Blower's Daughter. But it seems iTunes had other plans -- I had forgotten to uncheck the Waltz for Koop songs. So after... Continue Reading →
Negotiation and Human Behaviour
The passages quoted below can be found in the book Fundamentals of Negotiation by Gerard Nierenberg. I'm sharing these with you because of the insight it has provided me regarding the techniques in dealing with people. I especially enjoyed the second passage, where Nierenberg asks the reader the question, "are you more interested in their... Continue Reading →
The End of NSF
Today marks the day I'm no longer NSF (National Service, Full-time). It's been quite a long two years since I enlisted into the army (29th September 2004), and I'm ecstatic it's finally over. As much as I hated it, I have to admit that life in the army has changed me into a different man,... Continue Reading →
Female Anatomy
Well, well. Didn't expect to hear from you so soon...
Donn, fragments 