flotsam & jetsam

The Rhyme of Kate-la-Dime

The girl they call Kate-la-Plate, Jumped right on to a roller skate. She rolled herself down the hillside, Shouting and screeching: 'watch out, mate!' But keeping her balance...

Souled Out

Congratulations to GameStation, high street and online retailers of computer games, for knowing how to spot a bargain. It seems most of us...

Meaning to be Forgotten

There is nothing so common as language. Whilst there is sadness at stories of the death of some old languages, the truth is...

Searching for Halfthoughts

Miserypuss Rupert Murdoch may have decided that deindexing his news content from Google may be good for business, but it would be terrible for...

Spellcheck Serendipity

Time was that if you typed: "I'd like to throttle Bill Gates for his monopolistic business practices" into Microsoft Word and then checked the phrase against...

The 90 Wonders of the World

Herodotus has a lot to answer for. He lived during the wars between Greece and Persia in the 5th Century BC. His...

Reasons to Recast

In films and television, people always get cast according to how they look. Short people are angry/pushy/talkative. Slim young women are feisty....

What Is Wrong With The World

I am in Oman. Oman is a hot and sunny country. It is day time, and it must be thirty Celsius in...

Making Work for Ourselves (Part Two)

In part one, I imagined a scenario where one hundred people, selected at random, are stranded on a desert island. They have no...

Making Work for Ourselves (Part One)

Suppose that you and ninety-nine other people are stranded on a desert island. You are lucky, in that the island has all the...

A Celebration of Life

This week's halfthought is going to be short. Sometimes less is more, and this is one occasion where that holds true. Tis...

A Second Look

Have you ever tried to look at the world in a really different way? Can you remember what it was like to see...

About Halfthoughts

This website showcases content created by Eric Priezkalns, who also uses the pen name Ray Blank when writing science fiction. It includes stories, essays, poems, short films and audio recordings.