Third grade, they say, is the year that school shifts from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” I can remember my own third grade year feeling a lot harder than school had up until that point. And one of the things that happened that year was that my third grade teacher insisted that we…
Category: Another World Within
Unintended Consequences (Caturday Questions)
What happens when you do something that turns out to have unintended consequences? Middle Cat loves his Human-Mom. He goes out to the choicest nests and picks the nicest gifts for her and leaves them, pungent and appetizing, at the foot of her bed. But does she appreciate it? No. Quite the opposite. Why does…
Jabin Law: Live from the Living Room
Prologue I introduced Jabin Law, an independent singer/songwriter from here in Hong Kong, in a previous essay, but I think he deserves a full article about him, for I promised him a review (which has not materialised) on his double-album Ahistorical. Perhaps a reflection on a concert I attended instead. Life under the mask mandate…
Character Motivation (Caturday Questions)
Middle Cat said something interesting the other day. He said: “Character is the most important part of any story. If you think back to any of your favorite books, or even movies, the thing you’ll remember most clearly is the character. And probably the most important part of that is character motivation. If you know…
“Forget it” (An Archaic Concept of Me: Delivery 7)
A Moment of Authory* Self-Reflection Some months back, Iʼm half way through writing the book before I notice almost all of it is internal narrative of the main character. I had been considering going back to edit it towards more external action, and less dominated by early-adult thought-angst of not fitting in. But then I…
Eros Turranos: Grief through Poetry
Have you ever memorized a poem by accident? Happened to me a few years ago. A poem called “Eros Turranos” by the 19th-20th century American poet Edwin A. Robinson. I was going through a very bad breakup about which I don’t want to say more. I could say “out of respect to the parties involved”…
Talking Trash: Disability and Chores
There are tasks we assume short people will have trouble with. At just about five feet tall, I have plenty of experience there. But taking out the trash was never on the list of things I expected my height to cause problems with. It probably wasn’t on your list of short-people-problems either. About ten years…
Originality (Caturday Questions)
Middle Cat and Little Cat have tried to gin up a bidding-war for their artwork. Middle Cat’s brand trades on its sophistication. His claim to originality is that he is a cat who does not scratch furniture. Where, you might say, is his artwork, then? Middle Cat boasts that he is a performance artist; that…
Positive Reinforcement
Written after a day trip to Ocean Park, Hong Kong There you are,Attired in a smooth black swim suitYour boneless neck swervingto kiss the rod in the right place.A whistle,A satin,Rewarding the twisting and turningOf your bendy body and flappy fins.Children laughing and cheering and yappingat your candid dancing moves.You seemed happy – fulfilled.Protected and…
Reason, Religion, Abortion: A Less Tentative Response
A side effect of being an editor is that bad-faith arguments hurt my soul. It’s actually a really interesting thing to feel as it happens. Kind of feels like heartburn. And what’s odd is it starts as a feeling and then I have to figure out what is making me feel that way. I’ve studied…