If you’ve read Alex Haley‘s great book Roots, you know the incredible emotion you feel when after telling the stories of many people who came or were brought to America from Africa — gripping stories — and seemingly out of nowhere in the middle of a story about some woman she gives birth to him!, Alex Haley himself. It’s an amazing literary transformation from history to memoir that makes history[…] Keep reading →

Everyone kid gets asked what they want to be when they grow up. Do you remember what you said? Did it happen? Somewhere in the mid-2000s, I remembered a vignette from my childhood for the first time in decades, which was someone asking that question of me and my response, which was to say I wanted to be an inventor. I didn’t remember it in the meantime because of what[…] Keep reading →

People misunderstand culture shock. They talk about it happening when they go to a new place, but that’s not when you really get culture shock. When you go to a new place you expect things to be different so differences don’t shock you that much. You get culture shock when you return after having been away and having adoped foreign standards without realizing it. Then what used to be normal[…] Keep reading →

Has anyone ever told you you were thinking about things too much? Was it an annoying thing for them to say, perhaps dismissive? When someone says that to me I usually point out how I like to play with ideas. Ideas to me are like blocks for a kid — I like to put them together in different ways to see what they look like together, I build structures with[…] Keep reading →

Someone I’m coaching wrote the following: I will be graduating from college in May, and I am trying to decide which two cities I should move to after graduation. I’ve been wanting to move to NYC ever since I first visited in high school and been going there ever since. On the other hand, everyone that I know tells me that I should move to LA instead and think I[…] Keep reading →

Now that I’m out from China’s firewall of the popular social media sites, I could play with video. I figured out how to host and show my own videos inline, as opposed to posting them to another site and linking to them. So today I converted a few of them. Since I’m using new software, please let me know if videos don’t play for you so I can fix any[…] Keep reading →

My father once said to me (paraphrasing) When someone says they have time for something or not, they aren’t talking about time, they’re talking about priorities. Everyone has time for what they want to do. If they say they don’t have time, it means something else is more important. That observation has been one of the most valuable lessons I learned from him. Since then whenever someone (including myself) has[…] Keep reading →

Here are two new videos of my art by Bill Magargal from the opening of my solo exhibit at the Crossing Art gallery. First the north wall. I think it’s better than the earlier video I took and posted. Next, one piece on the south wall.

The closing event for my solo exhibition at Crossing Art gallery will be held in conjunction with Leaders in Software and Art (LISA) Thursday, July 14, beginning at 6:15pm. Details and directions are below. Both organizations are outstanding and I owe gratitude to each. I spoke at Crossing Art for my opening event last month and at LISA in February. Unlike most LISA events, which are members only, this one[…] Keep reading →