I’m a Texan. Born and raised.   Growing up in Texas, my grandparents (3rd Generation Texans) were ranchers and didn’t even speak English, even after three generations of being in the US. They were fiercely independent - living in a small town in South Texas where race was an issue - but not a defining trait. My grandfather and his brothers almost all fought in WWII and came back and started their own businesses (butcher shops, pizza parlors, ranches, farms, etc.).  Its hard for a non-Texan t...

After the historic letter from Abbott was sent to Biden Administration - 25 governors from other states have pledged their support. In addition to their posts on Twitter they signed a collective letter (of some sort...I didn't read it). Many on the Right are hootin and hollaring for Civil War - I'm seeing lots of "come and take it" flags (from the Alamo) and bravado. On the Left I'm seeing vitriol asking for the President to Bomb Texas and to strafe the disobedient. Its ridiculous. I susp...

Today is a remarkable day. Governor Abbott of Texas sent a strong letter to the United State government. It basically states that the Biden government has failed to do its job of protecting the Texas from a border invasion. That "...more than 6 million illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border in just 3 years. That is more than the population of 33 different States in thi country." As a result, Abbott is invoking Texas's constitution right to defend itself from an invasion and th...

I came across this post about AI telling stories: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-ai-reshaping-art-storytelling-michael-fitzpatrick-huwbc%3FtrackingId=kYG1uryJQYWv4j08BpRwDQ%253D%253D/ I know that its "against the (unstated) rules" to be critical of others on Linkedin and I have nothing against an entrepreneur trying to build a better future. We need optimistic views of the future if we are going to progress as a society. But, I have to take exception to a post that I saw today and commen...

Flipping through the channels after the Bills / Chiefs game I came across Urban Cowboy. I hadn't seen it in years but holy moly does it bring back memories and nostalgia. I was only 7 or 8 years old when the movie came out but my parents were fans and played the soundtrack over and over and over again. Its forever engrained in my memory - and the memories are not all bad considering how much I dislike country music. The movie isn't that great at all but it certainly captures Southeast Texa...

What do you write about on the days that you don't feel like writing? How do you kickstart your writing muscle when its fatigued, distracted, tired or just lazy? If Hemingway said "Writing is easy; you just open a vein a bleed" - then how do you bleed when you don't want to go thru pain? How do you force yourself to bleed when you are a temporary turnip? Today, I don't feel like writing or typing anything - so I'm just going to force myself to bleed for a bit. Tonight was a family nig...

Who am I? Who are you? Several years ago I took a series of personality tests. I took several of them multiple times to ensure accuracy and every time - the results were the same. I've run the results by colleagues and family members and they all agree that these are accurate. I can attest that I first took Myers-Briggs in college and my results were the same (INFP). Personality tests can be helpful - mostly in helping you work with others and others understanding how to work with you. ...

I've had high cholesterol my entire life - even in my late 20s and early 30s I had high 200s and 300+ combined cholesterol. At times my HDL (the good cholesterol) was well balanced at other times it very low (equating to a lot of "bad cholesterol." I've always resisted statins to regulate my cholesterol and tried through diet and exercise. But that didn't really work. In my early 40s I used to run ALOT. I trained for multiple marathons and ran regularly (daily) and maintained a very health...

Weird rhetoric coming out of Britain recently. The latest update from the Ministry Defense twitter account is an odd video that has a very different tone. A shift from Defense to Offense. In fact, those are the exact words used in the video: "The era of the peace dividend is over. And now, just like our enemies, we must plan and invest for an era of confrontation." This is disturbing rhetoric for a country with such a weak military (relatively speaking). Slipped into the video is "supp...

The Iowa Caucus rarely predicts the who the candidate much less the president will be - its all over the map. If memory serves me correct Ted Cruz won a few years ago. So, in many ways, its meaningless as far as votes go but its meaningful with regards to momentum. Trump won Iowa bigly. He not only breached the 50% mark of total votes but it appears like he is going to win all 99 counties in Iowa. I read the word "unprecedented" - although I'd like to see a fact-check on that. So, what...

In typical fashion, the Cowboys choked in their first playoff game this year (again). They put on an embarrassing performance and got virtually nothing right. The Packers schooled them like they were playing a high school team. I blame Mike McCarthy's terrible play calling. Their drive on their first possession was just run after run after run. What happened to their hyped up Texas Coast offense? There were no quick-release short passes until the 4th quarter. Instead, MM kept running o...

Arctic front moving in tonight here in Austin. The warmest temperatures for the next 3 and 1/2 days is supposed to be around Midnight tonight. Its not as bad as Kansas City (they played Dolphins in -7 degree temperatures) or Montana who was clocking in -40 degrees. Austin has had its fair share of negative winter experiences these past few years. First it was Snowmageddon and then we had an Ice Storm last year. The cold blast this week seems drier than the two prior years - I think we'll b...

We've had the BP oil spill story in the Gulf of Mexico (Deep Water Horizon) - but it was more factual and about the oil spill. What about a horror story of living on an oil derrick far and deep in the ocean? Focus on the isolation, the expanse of the ocean, the loneliness, missing the family, the pay days, the strange things the people see while working out there. Emphasis the grueling trips on the crew boats that ferry people back and forth from the shore. Write about an incident that r...

I've written a blog post daily for 10 days in a row now. I don't necessarily have a goal to write every day - but why not? No, the content isn't interesting but its still early innings....I'm exercising a muscle that has atrophied over the years. I've loved reading all of my life and I've always dabbled in writing - but never fully embraced it - well, never embraced it beyond academic and business writing. I studied English in undergrad and graduate school which entailed lots of reading...

I recently listened to Dreams by The Cranberries and it struck a nerve more than usual. Not really sure why since I've heard the song a million times before. Perhaps it was remembering that Dolores O'Riordan died in 2018 and that she struggled with depression and mental illness. I think it comes thru in her voice and in her singing - the wailing and the moaning. She has a beautiful voice and is missed. What also stood out for me were the drums in the song Dreams. Fergal Lawler is an i...

Neil Howe wrote a recent article titled "The Return of Zero-Sum Thinking." It compared the thinking, causes and impacts of Positive-Sum Thinking versus Zero-Sum Thinking. Howe concludes that poor economic conditions contribute more acutely to Zero-Sum Thinking that creates a Doom-Loop of negativity. Howe concedes that Millenials and even GenZ are victims and perpetuators of Zero-Sum Thinking and that might not end well. Highlighted excerpts are below: "According to the sociologists, “de-mo...

Coming up on the two year anniversary of the Russia / Ukraine war. The news and updates have already become rote and uninteresting. The American people have moved on and are not interested in what is happening in Ukraine anymore. The news cycle is looking for the new new thing and it temporarily found it with the Israel - Hamas war. But even that has gotten old. In both cases its tragic - for everyone. Death comes when one is provoked. And without exception - all four parties in the two...

A friend in Georgia (and his daughter) died in a car accident few weeks ago. They are survived by his wife and three remaining children ranging from high school to college age. To say that its been devastating is an understatement - one can't imagine the difficulties in going thru something like that. The shock. The awe. The questions. The doubts. But these friends in Georgia - they are surrounded by friends and have been supported by a network of friends across the country. They've had...

“Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression & World War II” The Fourth Turning, Levi Strauss & Neil Howe (1997) I first came across the book The Fourth Turning around 2010 or 2011. I remember reading it for the first time and being enthralled with the generational cycles and the potential roadmap that it outlined for the coming years. Little did I...

Every once in a while I put on the headphones and listen to Creed. Yes, Creed. There is something about the power chords and the pseudo-christian anthems that just feels right. For years I mocked Creed - even if I secretly liked them. The band oozed fake, poser, copycats, pandering - yet when 'Higher' would come on the radio I wouldn't change the station - in fact, I'd turn it up a little louder. The nadir of Creed was when they performed at the Dallas Cowboy Thanksgiving Game Halftime sh...

Coming back to work on Jan 2nd after a pretty slow holiday week is tough. Unless you are in sales grinding to close an end of quarter deal most people are taking time off or just not very engaged during the holiday week between Christmas and New Years. I was surprised by the number of calls and meetings that were pushed at the last minute last week. Likely the result of hangovers, sleep ins, family distractions or just plain lack of motivation. I took the extra time last week to both refle...

There is no doubt in my mind that Claudine Gay (Harvard President) should be removed from her post. I'm glad that she resigned, even she has to suffer her demotion with a $900k annual salary. Anyone that says "yeah, but what about _______ - should they be fired for plagiarism too?" Yes. They should. Terminate them all. All of the frauds who are out there in academia. Notice what I wrote - in academia. Sure, its up to each institution (academic or not) to hold their employees to cer...

Today the temperatures barely breached 50 here in Austin. This afternoon we were greeted with light rain that progressed well into the evening - I even heard some thunder and lightning. Overnight we are hitting the mid to upper 30s pretty regularly - almost freezing. No, I'm not complaining - I'm rejoicing and I'm expressing gratitude. After the excruciating and relentless heat this summer I welcome as much cold and rain that this so-called El Nino will throw at us. (i.e. its been a ridi...

I'd like to write more and more often. I'm not one who makes new year resolutions but today seems like as good a day as any other to start writing here every day. I've kept written journals and diaries for decades - started in college. It was always a personal way to clarify or solidify or capture feelings. There was no discipline to it - just an expression of emotion - and was not meant to be shared publically. My daily journaling has changed quite a bit since my college years. For almos...

Andrew Huberman is a Stanford Phd Neuroscientist with a very popular podcast on physical/mental health. Recently, he's been more open about his belief in God and Prayer - as a scientist - and has been reading the Bible. I found it interesting that someone w/such a large non-religious audience is talking like this. I appreciated hearing about his "scientific journey to God": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2PO_scRz6Y (short 40 second version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBe-PslUFUg ...

Due to a family illness, our original plans for Thanksgiving fell through. Instead of visiting our family we stayed home. To quote Tom Cruise's character in Collateral - "Now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, shit happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it." So I made a trek to the Godless-Millinneal utopia aka Whole Foods since it was the only story opened after Noon on Thanksgiving Day. I bought the required rations and we had a memorab...

While on a recent trip to Estes Park, CO we took the time tour the historic Stanley Hotel - supposedly haunted filled with ghosts that were likely invited by the proprietor's wife (Ms Stanley). Even in 1907 (the year that the hotel was built) she was already known as a spiritualist and pseudo-famous for her seance sessions. Against this backdrop and coming off of the commercial success of Carrie, Stephen King and his wife Tabitha moved from Maine to Boulder, Colorado. King lived in Boulder ...

As I wrote about it yesterday, Austin hit 102.9 making it the 80th day this year of 100 degrees or higher. The second most days in history with the most being 90 days in 2011. To make things worse, the north Austin area got pummeled with 3-4 inch hail which did severe damage to cars and roofs. We were lucky to only get 1/3 of an inch of rain - which was quite nice but didn't do much to cool things down. The heat looks to continue all week with highs in the mid 90s and evenings (mornings re...

Today is the first full day of Fall. The weather forecast is calling for 102 degrees. The good news is that it is supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow along with "cooler" temperatures this week. By cooler, they mean "the low 90s" during the day. The heat this year (and last year) has been something else. I know Texas is hot - no need to remind me, I grew up here - but these past two years have brought an enduring heat that just won't relent. Sure, those of us with swimming pools and centr...

I've seen many examples of GPT-3 outputs and interactions since it was released 11/30/22 but nothing as in depth or intimate than what I read in this article by Dan Shipper about how the author leveraged GPT-3 for daily journaling. While I'd never feel comfortable "journaling to a chatbot" I can appreciate the power of the computer prompting me daily with questions and inquiries to make my daily journaling more transparent, in depth and honest. As a daily journaler for almost ten years now...

"On a very deep and personal level (during covid) we were all forced to live with the sum of decisions that we (had) made (or failed to make)....and there is an incredible despair and guilt that came with that." - John Pageau podcast "What I owe to (the Inklings) is incalculable. Is there any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire? - C.S. Lewis "It may seem like a binary outcome in the moment, but all failure scenarios are not equally bad, just as all s...

Raskolnikov's dream of a plague "...from the depths of Asia" in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, 1866 He dreamt that the whole world was condemned to a terrible new strange plague that had come to Europe from the depths of Asia. All were to be destroyed except a very few chosen. Some new sorts of microbes were attacking the bodies of men, but these microbes were endowed with intelligence and will. Men attacked by them became at once mad and furious. But never had men considered themselve...

From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books. I was the middle child of three, but there was a gap of five years on either side, and I barely saw my father before I was eight. For this and other reasons I was somewha...