radiobeartime

Trunk Calling

Just set up a Mastodon instance and my own account – @mark@artraige.masto.host. Like all of us I have no idea what I am doing but it is a grey wet Saturday so why not. <a href=”http://Mastodon

Sometimes I want to murder time

October ends in fire. Book of the month I have been rereading “The Further Inventions of Daedalus” by David E. H. Jones. I loved reading these when they were a column in the New Scientist and his ability to come up with plausible sounding yet impossible ideas. Very useful experience for listening to pitches fromContinue reading “Sometimes I want to murder time”

Measure twice, cut once, weep daily

Remember when you could just buy something? You handed over money in exchange for goods or services and that was it. But now we are pursued forever by the furies of online shopping, service metrics. And so it goes on and on. The comforting notion that all this data has value, that the overhead inContinue reading “Measure twice, cut once, weep daily”

The crosses of old grey churches

And it’s September and we are back. Book of the month I have mainly been reading comfort fiction to quiet the Stone Monkey but catching up with Backlisted.fm I listened to the excellent episode on Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers and so I paused the podcast and reread the book. It’s well described asContinue reading “The crosses of old grey churches”

Efficiency

In my last blog post I said that whilst greater efficiency may reduce the number of staff needed it does not work if you try to do it the other way round, that is cutting staff numbers and expecting greater efficiency. But assertions are not evidence so let’s show the consequences of cutting staff withoutContinue reading “Efficiency”

Carousel

I have said many times that working for any large organisation, public or private sector, is like being on a merry-go-round. There is a constant sense of motion but for some reason the same sights keep coming round again and again. And here we are again with Francis Maude being commissioned to look at CivilContinue reading “Carousel”

Roffa!

I have put all the Roffa! stories on a single page which I will update as I go along.

Roffa Goes to School (continued)

Once outside the front door Ben stood and waited for Alpesh while Roffa sniffed and snuffled about her. She was not too sure why she was off on an adventure today but she thought that Ben had said it was to “Show her tail” and that sounded a very good idea to Roffa. Roffa knewContinue reading “Roffa Goes to School (continued)”

A Word A Month

For 2022 I have decided to publish a poem or piece of short fiction every month at the end of the month. Ursine paws must be kept in practice least we turn them to darker deeds… January 22 – This House is not Our House (poem) February 22 – Another short adventure of Roffa (fiction)

This House is Not Our House

This house is like our house but it is not our house. It has pictures hanging on the walls, But they are not our pictures. Sometimes they are pictures of places we know But we are absent. A lake without people. A ruin without history. The music in this house is not our music. ItContinue reading “This House is Not Our House”