Tom Brown
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I have 271 stories published in
24 collections on the site.
My stories have been read 361412 times
and 18 of my stories have been cherry picked.
414 of my 2,917 comments have been voted Great Feedback with a total of 417 votes

Born South-African, I went to a dual medium primary school and Afrikaans high school, NG Church mostly and sunday school Methodist. At school achieved top positions in science and mathematics olympiads, after as well completing two years of engineering studies with very good results but I did not graduate, I had to stop due to mental health problems.
Graduating under WK Bartoszek at Unisa, MSc (1997) and Pretoria University, Niko Sauer PhD (2006), formal interests were to be in abstract analysis and broadly in applied mathematics. All of my qualifications were with honours.
I had permanent teaching positions at Unisa and at Wits, however since not having been academically active, and as such absent from formal academic research for very long now, years. Advanced study and research was in Markov operators and stochastic processes; vector valued Laplace transforms applied to semigroups and families of evolution equations (Empathies).
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Unfortunately I have had a history of medical treatment for psychiatric illness with diagnosis of a bipolar mood disorder.
It was very fortunate in that my condition responded very well to medicine it helps if you cooperate and comply, if not, you don't have much of a chance. Also I am totally abstinent from alcohol and other mood altering substances for great many years, it did not accord with my constitution at all. As a chain smoker I also managed to kick the habit, more than a decade smoke-free now, by the Grace of God.
I have always been able to function completely normal and independently in society my isolation was not because of my own doing it was due to circumstances, and has just been getting stricter I seem to have almost no contact outside, save only for AbcTales. My saving grace.
I am totally isolated and financially barely getting by.
Although I am still studying mathematics and applications, more popular accessible kind of work, while interested and looking forward to hopefully be active in research or industry again.
God is in the details of the details. God is in the timing of the timing.
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Apart from studies in the natural sciences I am interested in languages and literature in general as well as religion. In high school I majored in German also, and Biology, in the meanwhile I have taught myself French, well enough to read (with a bit of difficulty).
Lately I have been writing more popular general interest essays and also trying for a bit of balance with mathematics and while keeping things understandable for most people.
Thus not involved at all with any social media, and having time for writing, leisure, watching movies, reading fiction, classics mostly, poetry and music. I miss my friends, and would really love getting outdoors and in nature more.
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Favourite authors are Jules Verne, HG Wells and Jack London, Shakespeare and poets William Blake and Dylan Thomas. I like adventure, science fiction and fantasy movies my all time greatest are the Narnia stories and the Lord of the Rings.
The meal best enjoyed is a breakfast of bacon eggs on toast fried chips with fresh orange juice, and for supper an ox-tail stew. I like eating out romantic. For recreation nature hikes, camping and fishing, listening to good music and reading, classics mostly, and good movies. I love dogs my best one was a Maltese poodle Freddy.
I love rain and lightning thunderstorms and rainbows. As well as writing and publishing here on AbcTales.
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These are my stories!
Keep your feet on the ground and reach for the Stars!
Might as well throw some Hawking in
Posted on Mon, 08 Aug 2022
Might as well throw some Hawking in as well he is the greatest mind since Newton and Einstein you know. He's an expert at this stuff.
Thanks for the acknowledgement Paul and making such a very good overview. You made the best of it for...
Read full commentPosted in Is There Anybody Up There ? [- 1st instalment]
Might as well throw some Hawking in
Posted on Mon, 08 Aug 2022
Might as well throw some Hawking in as well he is the greatest mind since Newton and Einstein you know. He's an expert at this stuff.
Thanks for the acknowledgement Paul and making such a very good overview. You made the best of it for...
Read full commentPosted in Is There Anybody Up There ? [- 1st instalment]
I thought it came from "dandy lion"?
Posted on Thu, 01 Sep 2022
I thought it came from "dandy lion"? Funny hey!? you know like the lion's mane. It is the breezes that keeps it afloat obviously. They do fall only very slowly. Can be a nuisance too.
See you Rhiannon! Tom
Read full commentPosted in Puff and scatter!
JPB also wrote a beautiful little piece
Posted on Sun, 28 Aug 2022
JPB also wrote a beautiful little piece of a day of meditation on the farm, full of the wonder of nature, full of memories and sentiment.
https://www....
Read full commentPosted in Ancient stone ruins in South Africa
When I was young long ago
Posted on Mon, 22 Aug 2022
When I was young long ago one rarely heard of someone who had been a hospital patient with mental illness but it only came out later. Now it seems everybody has some kind of psychiatric condition. Apparently more than 95% of Americans are on some...
Read full commentPosted in Stop the stigma
This is lovely Rhiannon for kids
Posted on Sat, 27 Aug 2022
This is lovely Rhiannon for kids to learn something. And your picture a bit of work you must have done it yourself. You can see it's a teacher or a granny most teachers are very dedicated.
Beautiful writing too and told as a story. Kiddies...
Read full commentPosted in What's the opposite?
Don't know about rainbows in heaven
Posted on Tue, 23 Aug 2022
Don't know about rainbows in heaven and that just keep on with life I'd say. The other things you have no control over your chance will come soon enough, the cow jump over doggie had fun with the silver spoon and whatnot and all that over the...
Read full commentPosted in Does it Rain in Heaven?
The (pseudo) research of Eric Von Daniken
Posted on Mon, 08 Aug 2022
The (pseudo) research of Eric Von Daniken might interest you it is about extraterrestrial (very advanced alien) visits to the earth in the very far past and to the ancient civilisations, but to be expected it is imaginative far-fetched and...
Read full commentPosted in Is There Anybody Up There ? [- 1st instalment]
The possible points of origin
Posted on Mon, 08 Aug 2022
The possible points of origin you give are purely speculation and guesswork and seem very convenient and very unlikely explanations. Are you speaking of the real origin in other words the very beginning of the other life form?
It might...
Read full commentPosted in Is There Anybody Up There ? [- 1st instalment]
Sounds like a dream!
Posted on Fri, 12 Aug 2022
Sounds like a dream! I like these "nature" poems. Tom
Read full commentPosted in Portrait of a Forest
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