Thought Crime

Is this an Introduction?

This is going to be a short post. I have decided to start doing more commentary, but in order to do more commentary I have also decided to embrace the Pod. Yes, I am going to use the machinery of podcasting in order to get some (more) of my thoughts

An opening chapter...

It is the smell that always surprises me. It has been so long now that we have been fighting, I am inured to the violence, the horror, and yet even so there are moments when I am brought up short by the penetrating influence of smell. Fear has a number

The Death of The Republic

As I listened to Kamala Harris reassure her supporters that her failure to attain the White House would not lead to anything other than an orderly transition of power in line with the Constitution of The United States of America, and encouraging them to fight on to build the America

Featured

Why I am not doing NaNoWriMo 2024...

Introduction I really wrestled with whether or not I should give NaNoWriMo another try this year, but in the end I have decided to be honest with myself - I just don't have the energy... I am still always writing, I just don't get most of

Cymru am Byth

When I travel to the office that I work at, usually once or twice a week, I rise at a quarter to six and I aim to be on the road before half past six in the morning.  Invariably, no matter how sensible I have been, no matter whether or

Are you ready for it?

Yesterday evening I went to the IMAX Cinema at Glasgow Science Centre with my kids to see the filmed version of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. Full disclosure, I am a Swiftie.  I have not always been a Swiftie, but a combination of my kids' interest in her

Heartbroken Joy

I just don't know what to say...  I am absolutely heartbroken that we have lost her, her voice, her powerful, truthful, warrior, delicate voice... And yet there is so much joy that she was with us, that she gave us her music, her words and all of it.

Take me to Church...

We have all been hiding from large groups of people because of Covid-19, right..?  I know that I have been trying to be sensible and careful and thoughtful about any risk-taking, even with my status as a twice vaccinated and once boosted science believer. What has been the greatest sadness

The Spiderman Effect

I have been a software developer, a coder, for well over twenty years.  The earliest days of my tinkering began at home, before my tween years, trying to come to terms with the dialect of BASIC that was available to me on my Commodore Vic20.  I have to be honest

essay

Reflections on Ambition, Attainment and Fulfilment

Henry David Thoreau famously said; “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.” and at the risk of accidentally and inadvertently “outing” myself as a middle-aged man, not merely a middle-aged man but also a Cis, White, Middle-Class, Man living in one

Equality..?

Kathryn Bigelow is one of the finest film makers of the last forty years. In honour of that fact my evening’s entertainment is watching her seminal nineties adrenaline trip Point Break. (I admit not the most feminist or diverse film ever made, but that’s really not the point

poetry

Esoteric Monster

“It’s a difficult time fer us, now You know?” Said the ghoul as he made shapes With his toe, in the snow. I tried to stay calm as he spoke Not look unnerved by his shattered visage Strips of rotting flesh seeming to trickle Down the side of his

Gambit Choice Blues

The house falls quiet now, Sleep has come to all but I. Deep in the halls of the night I wander alone, perusing the shelves; Looking for the volume I seek, I know it is here, somewhere. What will I do if I find it? Will I read the wisdom

fiction Featured

Grave Moment (Redux)

I have been told not to move.

dark

Grave Moment

I can feel the damp seeping into my jeans where my knees are pressing into the mud...

You Take the High Road...

The events of this last week have been momentous.  The long anticipated US General Election has taken place, and as I type this former Vice President Joe Biden is inching towards a victory that appears at least to be a foregone conclusion, and one that will not only carry the

code

Estimates, Time and Toxicity

or... How to build software reliably without “Crunch” I have been building software professionally for twenty years, and the one utterly constant truth I have discovered is this; > Making Time a key factor in the lives of Coders, and specifically in the process of estimating and planning work, is

Fathom

Copyright Maleghast (a.k.a. C. Oliver Godby) 2020 - All Rights ReservedA few weeks ago I wrote this poem and made this Rückenfigur self-portrait for a submission to a 'Zine produced by Penfriend [https://penfriend.rocks] for their supporters via The Correspondents Club [https://penfriend.rocks/clubhouse/].  The

I told you so, and it gives me no joy

This last week has seen confirmation that the UK has experienced more excess deaths during the COVID-19 Pandemic than any other country in Europe.  Playing second fiddle to Darth Cheeto’s “everything is bigger in America” world class shit-show is not where I expected us to be back in February

poetry

Night Walking...

Hood up Cans on; Music is driving, Showing me the way. Roads are dark, Half-lit by cabs Lamp posts’ sodium haze Phone-glow passes by. I tread lightly for a big man Toe to heel is my aim But flat striking That’s the limit of my game. Beats rise and

A Time To Speak

I can't sleep. I slept late on Sunday / yesterday, I think because I could, and because I needed it, but not so late that a sensible bedtime, i.e. before it was Monday was out of the question. No, I can't sleep because I am enraged,

programming

Credit Where Credit is Due

(Image: Barbara Liskov in 2010 | see credit below) I am suitably (I think) proud of my professional life, in so much as though I am not the best programmer (I know I have worked with and will continue to work with people far more talented than I), and yet I

VE Day 2020

I almost managed to forget what today is...  VE Day was not the end of the war, but it was the end of a lot of people's wars, and I get that.  I also get why the triumphalism __was__ important, but I don't think that we

What’s next?

I suppose it may be apparent to people that have followed my writing(s) over the years that I am still and have long-since been influenced by The West Wing.  To be a fan of a show, to find that it resonates with your life enough to merit re-watch after

poetry

Perspective ephemera

Rushing water Do you hear it? I am sure that I do, Though the spillway is dry. Warm golden fingers Do you feel them? I am sure that I do, Though the sun has sunk away. Distant voices Do you hear them? I am sure that I do, Though I