Given the Bigme HiBreak Pro, the Hisense A9, and the upcoming Boox Palma colour phone, I am seriously thinking of switching over to an E Ink Android phone...

Apple just doesn't cut it any longer for me. Their aims seem to be different to what I want. I want less price, less weight, smaller devices with good battery life. I don't think Apple really wants any of that 🙂 Their focus is on thinner, more expensive and maybe foldable?

The thing that's been holding me back has been the personal apps that the wife and I use. I've been converting the main ones to Flutter so that I can run them on Android and I'm down to one app.

So pretty close to making a decision. Time to look at options!

#EInk #Apple #Phones #Android

Another poem on a painting by @MichaelWhelan but this time, I'd never even seen the painting before in my life. But it's worth a look 🙂

https://write.farook.org/icarus/

The original artwork is here: https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/lechelle/

Icarus
by Fahim Farook

Over glen and vale he flies,
Master of the azure skies,
From craggy bluffs to roiling seas,
Across scorching deserts and verdant keys.

Like Icarus of yore the skies he roams,
On silent wings, light as foam.
Gazing down on a world of wonder,
As he drifts hither or yonder.

No one know of his inception,
Was it a wonder of conception?
Is he man, or is he robot?
Was he made, or of woman begot?

All they see from the ground below,
Is the coruscating glow that he throws,
As the scorching sunlight gleams brightly,
Off the shimmering suit that packs him tightly.

Is he a guardian keeping all safe?
Or one who at gravity's ropes, chafed?
Will he climb and fall as Icarus of old?
Or will he his course steadily hold?

For holding one's course is the harder thing,
As you rise, along with it does a fall bring,
But keeping on course and holding steady,
Is not for all when the winds are heady.

#Writing #Art #Poetry

My new poem on a painting by @MichaelWhelan takes a slightly different tack than the artist did 🙂

https://write.farook.org/sentinel/

The original artwork is here: https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/flora/

Sentinel
by Fahim Farook

Tumbleweeds cartwheel by,
Eagles soar lazily in the azure sky,
Grasslands stretch as far as the eye sees,
The sentinel stands guard without cease.

Surrounded by verdant greenery lush,
Adorned by vines and decaying brush,
No sign of its creators yet remain,
The land wiped clean of their acrid stain.

Plains carpeted by grass,
Trees adorning the land mass,
No sign of an intruder,
Except the sentinel, the brooder.

Silent and alone there it stands,
Awaiting the return of its creators to the lands,
Waiting, waiting, waiting for eons,
Awaiting masters to command their peons.

Mayhap one day its wait will be over,
It's masters will tromp back over the clover,
But will the end of the wait be a good thing,
Given the destruction their return would bring?

#Writing #Art #Poetry

Why the heck does Apple have settings for automatic downloads of updates and FileVault if they don't respect my preferences and simply turn it on themselves everytime I do an OS update?

#Apple #MyComputerOrTheirs

I had hoped "Saiyaara" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28037987) would be the second-step in the return of the romantic Bollywood movies, but it didn't quite get there.

When I saw that Mohit Suri had directed the movie during the credits, I thought it was going to be a return to "Ashiqui 2" and for a while, it did look that way, but they kind of redeemed things with the ending...

Except ... the movie seemed to wobble between a romance and a possible psycho thriller at times. Plus, don't get me started on the shaky medicine and the worse logic.

The songs and the music was great though. Almost put me back in the 90s 😛

#Movies #Hindi #Romance

I've written a post about book covers, artists, and art that made me buy books. I talk of @MichaelWhelan, Josh Kirby and the art for my own books.

https://write.farook.org/of-covers-and-books/

#Writing #Reading #Art #Books

I used to love Bollywood romances back in the 90s, but slowly they disappeared. Haven't seen a good one in ages.

"Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28812582) is almost close to the films I loved. Sure, it's a new, different vibe, but still the same good feels (mostly) 🙂

Loved the music too. It's been ages since I loved the music in a Bollywood movie 🙂

#Movies #Hindi #Bollywood

Wolf

I still strain to hear
the voice of starless, sleepless
night, flood me with hope;
but, though the blackness seems soft,
its teeth are obsidian.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

#tanka #poem #poetry #PoetryCommunity

I've written another poem based on a painting by Michael Whelan 🙂

This one's based on the cover for a David Brin novel that I haven't read.

https://write.farook.org/footsteps/

The original artwork is here: https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/brightness-reef/

Footsteps
by Fahim Farook

On alien shores with golden skies,
She stares into the future with pensive eyes,
While the relics of a past long forgot,
Are gazed on in wonder by a tiny tot.

Cities with spires reaching for the skies,
Beheld in wonder by long gone eyes,
Now ancient relics that make you wonder,
What you’d find if ventured yonder.

Time comes for us all,
Proud cities crumble and fall,
Ancient races fall to dust,
Machines tumble, eaten by rust.

All that remains when races fall,
Is forgotten footsteps of those who stood tall,
Every race that heeded civilization’s call,
Must one day, surely fall.

#Writing #Art #Poetry

And I have a new blog post up with another poem based on a painting by @MichaelWhelan 🙂

It's about the power to dream or imagine.

https://write.farook.org/portal/

The original artwork is here: https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/warming-her-wings/

Portal
by Fahim Farook

Dreaming, streaming, golden gleaming,
Sunlight dappled the grass, cheerily beaming.
Hark, there a nightingale sings,
Gliding the air waves on silent wings.

The golden amber honeyed light beckons you on,
To a barely seen world hidden in the mist yon.
Is it a land that time forgot?
Or a forgotten isle, or a desert hot?

Maybe it’s a portal to a fairy-land,
Where everything’s magical, nothing’s bland.
Or mayhap it’s a far future place,
Glittering towers yearning for the sky’s embrace.

Any doorway can be a portal to a magical place,
Unbounded by time or space.
Your imagination is the magical wand,
Transporting you from reality to beyond.

#Writing #Art #Poetry

"Bun Butter Jam" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31066062) is an interesting movie 🙂

I didn't expect a lot from it, but it surprised me. It's a different kind of love story, but one which rings true.

Loved the acting from Saranya, Devadarshini, and Charlie!

#Movies #Tamil #Romance

I wrote another poem about some memorable artwork by @MichaelWhelan that resonated with me 🙂

The Fool Cage
by Fahim Farook

Beneath the fool cage I sat,
By the world in front of me enrapt.
The ribbon road stretched ahead of me,
Beckoning me to strange lands I would see.

Upon my crag I sat,
The land spread ’round me like a mat.
Here a homestead, there a field,
‘mongst fluffy clouds alien birds wheeled.

The fool cage hovered over me,
With frilly lace on top fluttering gay and free.
A bird wanting to snack on the lace,
Would fall through and be trapped in place.

I gave no thought to the trapped bird,
The call of adventure was all that I heard.
I wanted to be away, journeying the world wide,
Not be stuck at home by my folks’ side.

Little did I know back then,
There were things beyond my ken.
I thought I was master of all I saw,
The world was mine to take or explore.

But with the wisdom of ages now I see,
That things aren’t as I thought them to be.
I thought I was free, roaming far and wide,
Through the lands, I would freely glide.

The world had been my fool cage,
The open road the lace which did me engage.
Now I find myself trapped,
Just like the birds when the fool cage snapped.

The original artwork is here: https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/destinys-road/

My blog post with surrounding information about the poem is here: https://write.farook.org/the-fool-cage/

#Writing #Poetry #Art

After I participated in the creative writing contest that @MichaelWhelan started, I thought of writing a series of poems based on Michael’s art.

Here’s the first one:

Gazing Beyond

by Fahim Farook

Gazing beyond the bounds of what I could see,

To dream of grasslands wider than a great blue sea.

This is what I’ve done all my life,

To see beyond life’s general strife.

I dreamt of starships piercing the black of space,

Of conversing in tongues with those of an alien race.

I dreamt of lands that human eyes had never seen,

Of being in places where man nor woman had ever been.

And now here I stand on this rickety scaffolding,

Not letting go of the breath that I’ve been holding.

Gazing again at what I’ve been barred from seeing,

Been here for hours, have to stop myself peeing.

I thought I’d see the next step in humanity’s journey,

To the stars, and not breathing its last on a gurney.

But all I saw beyond that tall imposing fence,

Was not something hidden by the Ministry of Defense.

I did not see rocket ships aimed at the stars,

Nor did I see voyagers going to Mars.

Instead I saw a sunset, all golds, oranges, and red,

As the sun headed tiredly for its rest in bed.

And that’s good enough for me right now,

A vision of a rocket can be beaten by a grazing cow.

Dreams of ships, and stars can wait for the ‘morrow,

I’m content with beauty that none can steal or borrow.

Some background about the poem, and the beautiful artwork which inspired it, can be found on my blog: https://write.farook.org/gazing-beyond/

Or you can find the artwork on Michael’s site: https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/terminus/

#Writing #Art #Poetry

I haven't been writing much lately — too much coding 😛

But I'm looking at writing a bit more and it all started with this poem ...

https://write.farook.org/efflorescent/

#Writing #Poetry #Art

Hey friends, my partner has put together a course to help people with the mental side of landing a tech job. Confidence in interviews, finding stuff that aligns with your values, salary negotiation; that sort of thing.

She’s been a programmer for 15 years and a therapist and coach for a few years now.

She is looking for feedback on the course in exchange for some free coaching on the topic.

If you’re interested, let me know! And boost or forward if you like.

I know this is a long shot, but does anyone have an original cartridge or an original rom of the game "Harald Hardtand" aka "Harald Hardtooth" for the #Commodore #C64?
(Not looking for the csdb Easyflash version).
Please boost/share.
#RetroGaming

So, an interesting thing (for varying values of interesting 😛) happened today ...

There's a service request for a book editing job. The prospective client? The Minister of Finance for the UAE.

I was like, "Hmm ... why would he want a document edited on LinkedIn? He's probably got staff to do stuff like this."

I look at his profile (shown in image) and it seems to indicate that he has 4.5 million followers. Must be legit right?

But hang on! Lower down it shows his activity as having 2 followers. And his activity extends only to like 12 hours of responding to three different accounts.

Look further down and you notice that his experience listing is what shows up at the top making it look like he's got 4.5 million followers 😛

So obviously a fake/spam/scam account. But if you just look at the number at the top, you could be fooled. I've already reported them to LinkedIn. But just posting this in case they take in somebody else ....
Screenshot of fake LinkedIn acc…

I've always got a side-project going on that interests me in some way. But most of the time, I forget about the side-project after I get it working to my satisfaction 😛

This one's one such project.

My nephew kept sending me images of similar puzzles that he'd solved, trying to stump me. That's how I got interested.

I found the app/game that he was using and realized that the app had a curated list of puzzles that the developer had created. You could only play about 40 puzzles and you were done.

I wondered if it was possible to create unlimited puzzled by dynamically generating the puzzles on the go. I gave it a shot and it was possible ... and this app was the result.

But once the problem was solved, I forgot about that project and moved on to the next project 😛 I just remembered the project today and am wondering if perhaps I should package it up and put it up on an app store or two ...

I don't know, there's so many interesting projects to work on. So is it worthwhile spending the time on bundling and distributing an app which might go nowhere?

What do YOU think? 🙂
An image of a game screen showi…

Someone's kindness made me cry today.

My son's been attending a kids sewing class at a local fabric store.

The owner saw how much he loves it, and had offered to sell us a machine at a discount for him to use at home, but it was still out of reach for us financially. I told her we'd save up for it for Christmas.

Today she gave us that sewing machine free. She said she wanted him to be able to continue to sew at home.

Enabling his passion is such a priceless gift and I'm incredibly thankful.

MacWhisper has this new Parakeet model which transcribes audio at astonishing speeds. I created subtitles for a 30 minute video, which normally takes about 15 minutes, in under 1 minute!

#MacWhisper #Transcribing #Subtitles