There are also several excellent books for Scratch programming. My son used Super Scratch Programming Adventure and really liked it.

It was not a critique only of apartheid, but also of the situation afterwards, and the way that migrants from other African countries were (and often still are) being treated in South Africa.

I also started in IT when I was in my early 30s, about 15 years ago. At the age of 45, I was lucky to find a software development job at a university.Yes, the pay is significantly lower, but I rarely exceed the 35-hour workweek (2-3 times in six years). There is flexibility that allows me to be a single parent that my previous 60-100-hour weeks and insane deadlines never had. I have the respect and cooperation of my peers and superiors. I have the opportunity (not taken yet) to take six university courses (anything I like) a year.

When I interviewed for the job, they asked me the standard question, "where do you see yourself in 5 years?" Given that I'm a senior programmer, the only way up would be into management, so I replied, "doing exactly the same work, that I love, but doing it much better".

Being part of an organized workforce (I'm part of the United Steelworkers of Canada, for some bizarre reason), I have a reasonably good chance of continuing to learn and develop my skills until I decide to stop -- but I'm having too much fun to see that happening anytime soon.

Absolutely. I have 2-3 meetings a week, almost never lasting more than one hour each. My boss shields me from all the other crap that I would otherwise have to deal with, including saying "NO", which I'm not very good at.

I remember how delighted I was to learn data structures and algorithms, after 15 years of being a self-taught hobbyist. Tree traversal? Quicksort? Recursion? Quadtrees? I was fascinated and excited to understand how those things worked. I don't remember ever being resentful of long days and late nights. I even had to get the department head's permission to take more CS courses in one semester than they normally allowed.

Of course, I was a mature student, studying CS in my 30s after graduating in chemical engineering (where the only computer course we had was FORTRAN) and spending a decade in the workforce. So motivation was different for me.

As a single dad to two boys, I have been the only dad at multiple birthday parties. I've planned and hosted them. I've dealt with my kids' teachers and coaches and friends without batting an eye.

Maybe I'm lucky that I'm not all that sensitive to what other people are thinking about me. It certainly helped when I was almost the only foreigner in a village in the mountains of Southern Africa for three years. It also helped when I was one of a handful of foreigners in the places I lived in Japan for seven years.

Yes, in some ways I feel more comfortable with people who speak English natively, or who understand about Tim Hortons and the Montreal Canadiens, but I also value the people who are around me, wherever it may be.

When I arrived in the aforementioned African country, my organization immediately (within 24 hours of my two-day trip) placed me in another village, where I lived with a family for a month. The rationale was that when you are thrown into an unfamiliar environment, you seek support and connections among those around you. If I had started with an orientation surrounded by other expat volunteers, I would not form close bonds with the locals. Also, learning the language became a matter of survival (although a few people around me spoke English, learning Sesotho was essential).

I dunno, the average GP (General Practitioner, or Family Doctor) in Ontario makes over $300,000/year, and malpractice is under $4,000. A general surgeon can easily make over $500,000. A senior software developer would earn about $100,000, a teacher with 10 years' experience about $90,000.

A heyday?

Sounds like the daily train commute I used to do in Japan. Have you ever seen those videos of white-gloved train station workers cramming passengers into the train? Every morning for three years. If I didn't have my book up by my face when I got in, there was literally not enough room to get it out of my bag and raise it.

Not that unpleasant when you are crammed against high school girls and OLs ("office ladies", female office workers), but when it's a 50-year-old oyaji who just threw his cigarette away before stepping on the train it is less than ideal.

Speaking of ramen, I lived near the city in Japan that had the country's highest-rated ramen restaurant (according to a popular TV show). There were lineups out the door and down the street after midnight on a week night!

I believe you are supposed to keep livestock in your house to help with body heat. That's the traditional way.

"Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light."

A literal pain in the rear? I think you're not doing it correctly.

I have a friend whose adult daughter committed suicide a couple of years ago. My friend, after seeing her daughter struggle with mental illness for years, believes in assisted suicide as a compassionate solution for some people even if they do not have physical pain.

It's hard for me to agree with this, but I also haven't lived through what she has.

The characters in Silicon Valley (the Mike Judge TV show) are much more believable and accurate, and the show is far funnier as well.