Back in the Summer I sat with a visitor at my church, the adult chaperone of 15 Iraqi high school students who were touring parts of the U.S., learning about the various career choices that might be available to them. After…
Killer Clowns, Black Lives Matter and the Herd Mentality
Living in Tulsa recently has brought me face-to-face with how quickly we revert to the herd mentality, particularly when we find ourselves in an information-poor environment. With amazing speed we will tacitly accept “truth” from very tenuous sources, and spread…
First Thoughts on the Lyric Thermostat
08/30/2016: Since I’m all about lowering one’s energy consumption (within reason), our rent home came with a lovely mercury-filled “slider” thermostat, circa 1995. For our first month it seems the thing was a blunt instrument — running way too much…
Mow your own damn lawn. Please…
Permit me a momentary rant, which may anger some folks… If you’re healthy, and not an invalid…don’t have a Doctor’s note or in other ways not able to walk briskly for a half hour at a time…then you should mow…
“This is not my beautiful house…”
Last week we completed (mostly) our move from our house of 15+ years to a new rental in South Tulsa. Too many reasons to go into detail as to why — the thing I’m talking about now is DESIGN and…
Disruption Stories
Stories abound about ways in which the Internet has been a disruptor to business and the status quo. Back in the early 90s I got to witness the carnage and bloodshed firsthand at the University of Tulsa. As I said…
“Home…is where I want to be…”
One of my interests is architecture and urban design, so allow me to introduce you to two little books by Witold Rybczynski… Between Home: A Short History of an Idea and City Life, you can’t go wrong. If you’re like me…
“So tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1999…”
With apologies to the late, great Prince…RIP. You’ve all heard the hype and bluster about the Cloud. As a term, I smirk about it being a “new” concept: the AT&T reps who used to call on me at Blue Cross…
Big Solar comes to Big Oil Country
This is very cool — my alma mater (and former employer) the University of Tulsa is installing an HUGE solar array on the roof of the Case Center in Tulsa. My Leadership Tulsa #49 colleague Jason Grunin tells me that…
The Kids Are Alright
From earlier: I joined TU in 1990 to run the campus computer labs. Since I was still young-looking, when Bob Chappelle hired me my first task was go undercover — bring a backpack and visit all the computer labs masquerading as…