Favorite Celebrity

Your Favorite Celebrity?

Cookie Monster 

Why are they your favorite?

I admire someone who knows what they want and isn’t shy about going after it. 

What’s their best feature? 

He’s blue (my favorite color).

Have you ever met them? 

No, but I’d love to hang out sometime, as long as there are enough cookies to keep him interested.

What do you like about their personality?

He seems genuinely nice. He has a diverse set of friends, but I’ve never seen him argue with anybody.

What else to you like about them? 

Well, he’s very furry, but he doesn’t seem to shed. I never see blue fur flying all over the place, just bits of cookie.

Do you have their autograph? 

No. I would ask, but I’m afraid that he would eat my pen.

What would you say to them if you had the chance?

Thanks for all of the fun times! And keep enjoying those cookies!

The Limits Of Visualization

Occasionally, while chatting with photographers or reading accounts of how a well-know photograph was made, I’ll encounter someone claiming that they knew what an image would look like before they released the shutter.

We can acknowledge that as people build skills, they will be better able to predict the results of certain actions in a given set of circumstances. It’s like an experienced driver visualizing the potential hazards of traveling on a slick road surface. He can predict how his car might get stuck in a ditch if he tries to take a curve too fast. As a result of this graphic mental imagery, the he takes the necessary precautions to avoid an incident. 

But prediction is not practice. If it were, photography enthusiasts wouldn’t have to take pictures at all. They wouldn’t have to buy any equipment. They could just sit on the couch visualizing images all day while feeling completely satisfied.

Photography is all but designed to capture surprising results. The world is a dynamic place. A small change in lighting can modify the look of a photograph in profound ways. A person walking into the frame unexpectedly can give the image an entirely new dimension. If a photographer of any skill level doesn’t find his results surprising from time to time, they must be playing it very safe by doing what they have always done. If that’s the case, they probably aren’t having much fun.

The magic of photography is rooted in the unexpected - a movement, a gesture, a person showing up in an unusual outfit, a passing cloud formation that will never be repeated. Photographers wake up before sunrise, hang out in congested neighborhoods, and seek challenging conditions for precisely this reason. They are looking for that next magical moment, and they know that they have to be out there to find it, even though they have no idea when or where it’s going to appear. The bigger the surprise, the more memorable the image.

Photography is not the only creative endeavor that thrives on discovery of the unexpected. Surprise is a critical element in all of the arts. 

When I write prose or poetry, I begin with an idea of what I want to say. As I work on writing down my idea, details become clearer, words and descriptions come to mind that narrate my thoughts in ways that I could not have anticipated. Sometimes, the words lead in an unexpected direction, and the final product is vastly different than what I first imagined. But even when I stay true to my original idea, I discover unexpected ways of expressing myself. The magic of any enterprise comes during its realization. 

This is why writers face the blank page again and again. Each attempt at expressing an idea is an adventure. Sometimes, it’s frustrating, but if we stick with it, our hearts and minds eventually find the right words. The rewards are magical, and the magic comes from the process.

Music is perhaps the most surprising of all of the arts, because music and sound are inherently mysterious. The tone of an instrument can inspire a musical idea; no one understands how that works. When we hear a saxophone, we’ll think of a different musical vocabulary than when we listen to a violin. An electric guitar inspires different musical ideas than a Spanish guitar. The way that human beings respond to various tones is not well understood, and yet we all have a sense for how it works.

Gershwin claimed that ‘Rhapsody In Blue’ appeared in his mind one day as a complete idea. I have no reason to question the veracity of this account, but I can guarantee that hearing the work performed by an orchestra for the first time was vastly different than imagining it in his head.

We can visualize anything. I can imagine being at the top of the Empire State Building on a warm summer evening. I have been there many times; I have a clear recollection of how it felt, how it sounded, how it smelled, and of course, what I could see. But the next time I go up to the observation deck, the experience will amaze me all over again, as it does every single time. The general experience will be similar to what I imagined and recalled, but richer, more detailed, and more satisfying. Life’s experiences are thrilling and powerful and engaging in ways that our imaginations cannot fully replicate. An artist’s imagination is no exception.

Random Thoughts - 20200430

Random Thoughts - 20200430

An alarming number of people are more concerned with making a buck than saving a life.

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People who don’t like to be blamed aren’t shy about blaming others.

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The most painful memories are the most difficult to forget.

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If women really are smarter than men, why was there never a ‘Spice Boys’ group?

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If you want to avoid emotional pain, don’t let yourself care too deeply. But if you desire a life that’s profoundly fulfilled, take that risk and love with all of your heart.

Leaving

If he leaves her 

To be with you

He’ll leave you 

For someone new 

Let’s recognize 

What’s also true 

This rule applies 

To women, too 

Kriej Flabbit

Kriej flabbit nepht navoumi 

Wantle phleening ziere 

Nysk aacklus delbitt nierey 

Tamble rohtus plear 

Intil raskish nemming oodhus 

Freck complanktous foosk 

Braygghed nimm tussallis meszwer 

Tehp intümgriss loosque 

August Morrison

I had a chance to see a number of concerts during my college years. One evening, a bunch of us got tickets to see Frank Zappa. We piled into the car and drove to the city, where we picked up another friend who was studying at one of the universities there.

There was no such thing as a mobile phone back in those days. I don’t think the guy even had a phone in his room; we had to physically knock on his door to let him know that we were there. We couldn’t just walk into this dormitory, though; we had to sign in at a visitors’ desk. 

I was first in line to sign the book. I don’t know what possessed me to do this - I guess I was in one of my goofy moods - but I decided to make up a fake name.

I wrote down the first two words that popped into my head: Jack Modern

The next guy saw what I wrote and came up with his own phony name. 

The third guy, perhaps lacking imagination, wrote down ‘Frank Zappa’.

The fourth and final guy in our crew was earnest enough to use his real name. I won’t use his real name here - he’s a nice guy, and I don’t want to embarrass him. Let’s say, for the sake of the story, that his name was August Morrison.

The young lady behind the desk picked up the ledger and looked at it for a moment. “Ah, come one guys!” she protested. “You can’t make up fake names.”

“They’re our real names,” I insisted.

“Yeah!” the others chimed in.

She looked at the ledger carefully once again.

“August Morrison!” she exclaimed angrily. “What kind of a name is that?”

The only real one, actually...

A Grim Milestone

COVID-19 has now killed more Americans than the Vietnam War.

Have you been to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.? Have you seen all of the names carved into those walls? COVID-19 would need a bigger memorial, and it’s just getting stared. 

The war raged on for more than a decade and traumatized our great nation in profound and unforgettable ways. The virus has killed more US citizens in less than two months.

Public Health And Individual Rights

No one has unlimited rights. No one has the right to dump sewage into the water supply. No one has the right to drive on the wrong side of the street. No one has the right to sneeze on the produce section. 

When public health officials set guidelines to limit the spread of serious illness, one might argue successfully that those guidelines impinge upon individual rights. But the rights of the individual cannot override the rights of a community to stay healthy and prosperous. No one has the right to harm others in a vain expression of individual liberty.

Government Forces Infected Meat Plants To Stay Open

Pundits and protestors are demanding that they economy reopen quickly. They claim that government has infringed on their rights by closing businesses and preventing gatherings in an attempt to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Explain this to me. Do the workers in these meat processing plants have rights? They are being sent back to work in properties where COVID-19 has been spreading out of control. They work without adequate safety gear. The Trump administration has ordered that the plants reopen and stay open. CDC guidelines are being considered as suggestions rather than rules. The workers cannot sue their employers. If they refuse to work, they will not be permitted to collect unemployment insurance. The government is playing Russian roulette with the lives of US citizens.

Those protestors say that they don’t want the United States to act like Communist China. Frankly, I don’t see a difference. Forcing workers into unsafe conditions harkens back to dark chapters in our history, to the America of the 1800’s, when workers had no rights and were seen as disposable. Is this the right direction for our nation?

9 Thoughts That Hold You Back

9 Thoughts That Hold You Back

1. I don’t have time

You have time for lots of things. Can you do some of those things more quickly? Can you delay or eliminate them if they are not important for your long-term fulfillment?

Even with a little bit of time here and there, you can make great progress. Fifteen minutes a day is a whole lot better than zero. Can you find fifteen minutes somewhere in your day, time to dedicate toward reaching a dream? Can you find thirty?

2. I’m too busy

You will always be busy. You’ll always have bills to pay, chores to do, errands to run, and people to satisfy. You have to find a way to work around all of that. Prioritize. Get a partner. Just say no. Do whatever you have to do. Life is not going to stop and let you work on your dreams.

3. I’m tired

When was the last time you didn’t feel tired or hungry or stressed or moody? If you’re waiting around for abundant energy and sheer bliss, you’ll never get anywhere. You’ll never get started.

Fatigue is real, but frequently we use it as an excuse to avoid action. Think about doing a task that you don’t want to face, and your brain will trick you into believing that you’re too tired to function. 

Forget about how feel; it’s irrelevant. You’re going to feel a whole lot better once you get moving.

4. I don’t really know what I want to do

That’s a common problem, and the solution is simple. Do something. Do anything. No action is a waste of time. 

Try something. You’ll know fairly quickly whether it’s right for you. If you discover that you should be doing something else, then switch gears and do that. No matter what you do, you’ll learn skills that will make you a stronger person, you will learn a lot about yourself.

5. I don’t know where to start

Start anywhere. It doesn’t matter where you start. The path will become clearer once you get moving. You won’t know which turn to take a mile down the road until you actually get there. Start moving. You’ll figure out where to go.

6. I don’t have what I need

Sure you do! If you have a dream, a will, a brain, and a body, you have enough to get started. You can pick up the rest as you go along - people, resources, funding, opportunities. But unless you’re already moving forward, no one is going to believe in you enough to want to help out.

7. I’m not sure that I’m good enough

Here’s a sobering fact. In the beginning of your journey, you probably won’t be good enough to do what you want to do. But don’t worry about it. You’ll get better as you work on it. 

If after a bunch of work you’re still not good enough, you can hire specialized help in the areas where you have weaknesses, or you can switch to a different goal entirely, something that you are able to do better. 

You’re not going to gain mad skills by sitting on your couch and dreaming about the promised land. You have to get up and do things, try things. One you start pushing your way past obstacles, you’ll gain skills that you didn’t even know you needed.

8. What if it doesn’t work out?

Then, it doesn’t work out, and you’ll try something else. But win or lose, you’re going to gain valuable skills and insights along the way. Those skills will help you to succeed at whatever comes next.

9. It’s too late

It’s never too late to do something meaningful, something that you have dreamt about and longed to do, something that will make you truly and deeply happy. Today may not be as good a day as yesterday, but it is infinitely better than tomorrow. Don’t wait another day to get started.

Begin

Begin and the path will guide you.

Wait and you will never know the way.

Clarity In Difficult Times

Difficult times bring out the best and the worst in people. Some rise to the challenge with acts of profound bravery, selfless heroism, informed decision-making, and shared sacrifice. Others are compelled to rebel, expression their displeasure through disinformation, reckless actions, and self-centered behaviors such as hoarding and refusing to adhere to critical guidelines. Extraordinary challenges shine a glaring light on a person’s character.

Dedication To Work

This is a long story, but it has some interesting twists and turns, and I promise that the journey will be worth it.

At one point in my career, I was working on a six-month contract. The management at this place was slow in letting me know whether the contract would be renewed, and I wasn’t particularly happy there, so as the end date drew near, I phoned a few recruiters to see what positions were available.

It was easy to find IT jobs in those days, and within a day, three companies had expressed interest in speaking with me. One company in particular, a foreign bank, was particularly aggressive. They set up an interview right away, and they wanted me to give them an answer that same day. I told them that I would need  to consider the offer over the weekend (BS, but always a good tactic). I contacted the other companies and stressed that I would need to make a decision quickly. Eventually, I accepted the position, because I couldn’t stall them any longer.

My main job there was writing software that supported the accounting system. The internal workings of the system were developed by an outside vendor. They managed the debits and credits, depreciation, tax calculations, etc. The software that I supported managed all of the data that flowed into and out of the vendor system.

Inputs to the system included account balances, loan payments, information on trades (stocks, bonds, and other instruments), interest rates for bond pricing, and currency rates (e.g. how many Japanese Yen would a US Dollar trade for that day?). 

Outputs included operations reports (risk, profit and loss, etc.), feeds to compliance systems (money laundering, insider trading), and regulatory reports for government agencies. The government report had to be submitted on time every day. The feds have the power to revoke your charter and shut down your operations.

To summarize, a lot of information had to flow in and out of this system, and it had to work smoothly, accurately, and on time, day in and day out. I was responsible for making that happen.

So, why was this company eager to hire me? Well, they had some crude software in place to do all of these tasks, but it didn’t work very well. Catastrophic failures were frequent, and those failures often happened at two or three o’clock in the morning. 

When a bunch of people get called in the middle of the night, they aren’t happy. This happened over and over again, and my job was to fix it.

Getting a call to fix a complex problem at three o’clock in the morning is a horrible experience. You’re in the deepest part of your sleep cycle. Your brain has to wake up before you can even think through the problem. Even if you figure out what happened and take the appropriate action to fix it, you’ll worry that you missed something. It’s a like a nightmare, except it’s really happening.

Over the course of a couple of months, I examined each of these failures. I figured out which parts of the software was breaking and replaced the, with new code that understood how to handle the issue and, if possible, to recover gracefully without human intervention.

It didn’t happen overnight, but the results were a big improvement. A computer system that was infamous for failing several times a week became stable to the point where it had about one failure per year.

My boss was very happy. While I was working on the nightmare accounting system, he asked me to design a new system for document sharing and retention. 

The idea was straightforward. If you take a photo with your phone, you can view it right away, but no one else can see it until you upload it to a system with global access, like Instagram or Google drive. 

The new system that we were designing did the same thing except not with photos. 

It stored reports and documents. People in offices all over the world needed to see reports as soon as they were created. There was no such thing as “the Cloud” in those days, so we created our own mini cloud for our own purposes. I created the software to load four thousand reports into this mini cloud every day, and to make sure that none of them were missing.

The mini cloud worked well. It enabled us to share documents with users in offices around the globe, and it stored them permanently. If in the future somebody needed to find an old report, they could get it from the mini cloud.

One day, management approached me about adding one more file the mini cloud for long-term storage. It was a very large file; we would receive a copy of it once a month from the Bloomberg company.

Some background: financial companies rely heavily on Bloomberg for information. This information is distributed in a number of ways, but one of the primary sources is a product known as the Bloomberg Terminal. It’s basically a screen that shows a lot of numbers and graphs that change in real time.

Today, you can install software to display live feeds of financial information on your home computer, but when the Bloomberg terminal first became appeared, it was far more advanced than anything else that was available. It looked like something from a science fiction movie. To this day, it’s a very popular tool for traders and financial analysts. Walk onto any trading floor anywhere in the world, and some, if not most of the desks will have a Bloomberg terminal.

One feature of the Bloomberg terminal is that is has a message app built in. That might not seem like a big deal today, but imagine if you had WhatsApp twenty-five years ago. It would have seemed amazing.

Traders use the messaging app to communicate when they need information quickly. They ask each other for prices and rates as they consider which deals and trades to make.

But people use Bloomberg messages for non-business communications, as well.

“We’re going for drinks. Want to join us?”

“What time?”

“Around 7”

“Sounds good!”

The reason that I know this is because the big file that we received from Bloomberg every month was a log of these messages. Every message sent or received during that month on a Bloomberg terminal by any person in my firm was in the file that I received.

I know what you’re wondering. Did I read the messages? The answer is only when I had to (more on that later). Most of the time, I didn’t read anything in the file. I could have if I wanted to - the file was not encrypted - but to do so would have been an invasion of privacy, and I didn’t feel right about that.

Let’s fast-forward a couple of years to the day that I received a call from the legal department. A call from the legal department is never good news. They don’t call you to you inform you that you’re the lucky winner of free legal services for a year. They call you because something bad has happened, and you have information that they need.

The lawyers wanted to me to search the Bloomberg message archive for messages sent and received by a particular employee on a particular day. This person, a lady, had attended a conference call where sensitive, non-public information was discussed. It was supposed to be attended by invitees only, but the employee let someone from outside the firm join the call. The person from outside was a reporter. He was also her boyfriend.

To make a long story a bit shorter, the reporter published the information, management figured out that the lady was the leak, and she got fired. Now, she was suing the firm for wrongful termination. The legal department needed her Bloomberg messages to build their case.

There were several messages between her and the boyfriend. I retrieved them from the archive and sent them to the legal department, thinking that that would be the end of it.

Some weeks later, the lawyer called me back. The case was going to trial. Apparently, the Bloomberg messages must have been important to the case, because the lawyer wanted me to go to court and testify as to how these messages were handled and stored.

To tell you the truth, I think that it would have been thrilling to participate in something like that. Unfortunately, there was a conflict. The court date was right in the middle of a week that I had planned to take off for vacation. This wasn’t just any vacation. It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe with my father and my son. A lot of planning had gone into it. The flights and hotels had long since been booked. The itinerary was packed. It wasn’t something that I could easily have delayed by a week.

I explained this to the lawyer and asked whether they could postpone the trial date. He said that it wasn’t likely, and that the lady, who was clearly in the wrong, would probably win her lawsuit. 

I felt bad, but I couldn’t change my plans. I would have regretted doing so for the rest of my life.

I’ll get out of bed at 3 o’clock in the morning to attend to an urgent matter if I have to, but I’m not going to reschedule a family vacation. I’m dedicated to my work, but I am infinitely more dedicated to the people who love me.

The Words Of A President

Illustrating the power and reach of the words spoken by a US President, on a conference call this morning, some of my international colleagues jokingly asked me whether I had taken my daily dose of Lysol. I replied that I take it three times a day while sunbathing.

We enjoyed a good laugh.

Their final comment on the topic was, “We’re glad that YOU have him, and he’s not here!”

Breaking Records

For decades they claimed 

That it couldn’t be done 

Until the Four-Minute Mile was won 

Perhaps This Virus Was Meant To Inspire Us

Perhaps this cruel virus 

Was meant to inspire us 

So said great Osiris 

On scrolls of papyrus 

Dixocratic Immunity

I have a theory about why the governor of Georgia wants to rush to open his economy. You’re not going to like it, but it needs to be said. COVID-19 kills people of color at a higher rate. A man who spent his political career actively preventing African Americans from voting might see that not as a crisis, but as an opportunity.

The Staggering Human Toll Of COVID-19

US COVID-19 death toll: 40,189

To put that into context, remember the Benghazi embassy massacre, and then multiply the number of American citizens killed by ten thousand. Think about that. Imagine if the Benghazi massacre had happened not just once, but over and over again, ten thousand times. Incomprehensible? If that had really happened, US casualties would still be lower than the number killed thus far by COVID-19, and the virus is still raging.

If you were upset about Benghazi, I understand. If you thought that all of those congressional inquiries were necessary, I understand. But if you’re not a whole lot more outraged by Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus than you were about Hillary Clinton’s handling of Benghazi, then you need to check your moral compass, because it’s leading you way off course.

Opening The Economy

Opening the economy in the middle of a deadly viral pandemic without universal testing would be like landing a 747 at night in a blizzard by lining up visually with an unlit runway while the radio doesn’t work, the landing gear won’t deploy, and the cargo bin is carrying an atomic bomb, and repeating this scenario at every airport in the country.

But, hey, if that’s what they want to do...

Talent Thrives Within You

Talent thrives within you. It blossoms and grows and flourishes like a bountiful garden. You job is to figure out how to walk into that garden and harvest what it produces so you can enjoy its riches and share them with the world. 

Don’t worry. Your garden won’t run out of produce. The more that you harvest, the more it will grow. But those riches will be locked inside you forever unless you figure out how to access them.

The Illogic Of It All

4 deaths in Benghazi: Outrage! Countless investigations.

2,750 deaths on 9/11: Spent trillions of dollars on two wars.

19,000 deaths from COVID-19: No big deal! Get back to work!

Reality

Reality doesn’t care what you want it to be. It doesn’t care about what you think or feel or believe. It doesn’t care about your religion or your politics or your worldview. It doesn’t care about where you’re from, what you have lived through, or how successful you are. 

Reality doesn’t care about you at all. It existed before you were here, and it will continue indefinitely once you are gone.

The only choice that you have in the matter is how you deal with reality. Will you face it, or will you hide from it? Will you seek clarity by studying it, verifying your interpretations with reason and empirical evidence, thereby leveraging the power of truth? Or will you wrap yourself in a blanket of wishes and reactions and hope that reality will somehow conform to your expectations?

Ban The Virus

Do you believe that travel bans are an effective way of controlling a deadly pandemic? If so, would you support an international ban on travel by Americans?

The United States has the most cases of any country in the world by a HUGE margin. The rest of the world should be able to protect itself from infections Americans, right?

Q: What’s more obnoxious than an American tourist?

A: An American tourists with a fever!

Hahahahahaha!

It’s only fair, right? I mean, we’re like the kings of travel bans. We ban everyone! And now that we’re the COVID-19 poster child, the rest of the world can pay back the favor and ban US.

Hey, I know! Instead of “Yankee go home!” they can call it “Yankee STAY home!” It’s had a nice ring to it. Trump likes catchy slogans. Convince him that this was his idea, and he just might go for it.

Les Règles De La Nuit

La nuit est un autre pays avec des règles complètement différentes.

The Opposite Of Pro Life

The next time a Republican voter claims that their party supports a “pro life” agenda, remind them that the Republican state legislature of Wisconsin forced voters, including elderly citizens and people with health problems, to show up and vote IN PERSON during a DEADLY VIRAL PANDEMIC, a decision that was upheld by the Republican majority on the US Supreme Court.

The Republican party is not pro life; it’s pro power, and it will not hesitate to put people’s lives in danger in its efforts to attain and perpetuate political influence.

Highest Aspirations

Truth, beauty, honor, wisdom, and contentment are the highest aspirations of humankind. Strive to develop and encourage them, and admire them in all of their forms.

American Scourge

Pray for the Emergency Medical Technicians and for anyone who works in a hospital. Pray for those who will require hospitalization to survive. And finally, demand that this corrupt, vengeful, pathetic excuse for a president will get off of his fat, lazy, self-idolizing ass and do SOMETHING to help our healthcare workers to protect themselves and fulfill their commitment to caring for the infected.

What’s happening right now in the United States Of America, the world’s richest and most resourceful nation, is a tragedy of biblical proportions caused in great measure by an absolute calamity of leadership. No other nation on Earth is facing the problems that we are enduring, and the situation is only getting worse.

It’s Not Flirting

I wasn’t flirting with you. Think of it as complimenting with intent. :-)

A Time To Act

There’s a time to talk 

There’s a time to act 

There’s a time to walk 

And not look back 

There’s a time to let go 

And put things behind you 

There’s a time to move on 

To where trouble won’t find you 

Calendar Of Love

Love has its own sense of time. It follows its own calendar, where every single day is a day for fools.