The blinding light of illumination has made me see what I’ve known was there all along. The darkness was comfort. It hid what I didn’t want to look at. Now I see it and I have resolved to deal with it for good, to have dominion over it, to remove it. It’s not going to hide with its insidious hunger and eat away slowly all that is important to me.
It’s why I lived in a virtual surreality. Now the light is comfort.
Thank you to the bearer of that light. The light is burning hot to begin with but as it diffuses throughout the darkness, it becomes a warm, welcoming glow. The initial pain is replaced with happiness. The image of the bearer of the light is with me forever.
Perhaps our core approach to solving problems is much like a sauciér making the perfect jus: reduce and test.
This is applied to any part of the information science process — whether it’s strategy, requirements, architecture, design, coding, testing, deployment, or lifecycle management.
Reduce all along the way: Minimise inputs, activities, and outputs to improve clarity, trivialise change, and realise value at the earliest opportunity.
Test all along the way: Verify and validate assumptions and expectations. Discover and evolve understanding. Innovate and execute.
Lean. Assured. Savour the results.
Went to an album launch for a local Sydney band down at the Basement during the week. Fantastic live performance. Superb company. All in all, a very pleasant night out.
Time for a poem. One from some time ago. Can you feel the angst? 
The wishes in a dream
Pebbles for my stream
The rain when it showers
Water for my flowers
The sun when it shines
Music for my rhymes
The wind when it blows
Words for my prose
The fire when it’s burning
Hunger for my yearning
The ice when it’s cold
Glimmer for my gold
The sky when it’s blue
A special place for you
The air when it’s clear
A smile when you’re near
The wishes in a dream
The wishes in a dream
From an email:
True belief is a strange thing. It doesn’t matter what transpires, or what is being told to you, or what other thoughts (logical or irrational) that fly through your head, you still believe.
Sometimes, it’s just Time that tells - or perhaps it’s really forgetfulness.
It’s a burden and a comfort. I suppose everyone needs something to believe in, it’s just so depressing, frustrating, or upsetting when those you want so badly to believe it too don’t (or don’t want to).
Nonetheless, nothing worth believing in is going to be easy so, it’s just another step in a long journey.
Elizabeth Keogh has been blogging about Haiku lately and this has inspired me to post an extended poem I wrote about 18 months or so ago.
It was written in and about a pizza place called “Bravo” in Sydney. 101 pasta dishes and one of the original late-night gelato bars is their claim to fame.
This one is close to my heart and recalls a bitter-sweet time for me (also a time of prolific poetry in various forms). Thanks, Elizabeth, for the reminder!
Bravo Haiku
Tuesday nights, come rain
or shine. Being like a tree
to help keep me sane
Macchiato hot
Dark brown magic on the tongue
Hitting the right spot
A Peroni beer
Golden bubbles cool the heat
Poetry is here
Writing and thinking
Creativity changes
Violet shrinking
Pizza is the fare
Pasta choice one-hundred one
Enough here to share
Gelati come next
Sweet springtime caressing lips
Polishing the text
Alla prossima
setimana, allora
‘Ciao’ is pro forma.
Joshua Graham 2004
The initial blog.
I’ve resigned from Optus after getting some amazing enterprise-class web infrastructure in and the new corporate web site is about to be launched. Long live the Lazarus and Strategic Web Channel Launch programmes.
After many months of discussion, I’ve joined ThoughtWorks. I’ll be joining some of my new colleagues and other clever developers at the SyXPAC tonight. I notice that Adam Cogan, an old associate is a member. Hope he’s there to catch up on old times.
I’m using iBurst mobile broadband at the moment and I’m quite happy indeed. Sure, it’s not as blistering as low-contention Cable, or higher speed DSL, but heck it’s fast enough for me and it works on the bus, the ferry, and gets good reception pretty much anywhere in Sydney.
