Scribbles and Photos

Fallen Trees I always loved that moment in Star Trek: Next Generation when Jean Luc Picard (sexiest star ship captain ever) would say:  "make it so."  Because, inevitably, it would be so. A while back, I penned a post, Pillbox Fill: An Idea for the 2013 FIRST Robotics Competition , that focused on creating a robotics competition that would raise intergenerational awareness.  For those of you who don't follow Robotics, the First Robotics competition is for high school aged kids.  Every year, teams from all over the world wait anxiously to learn what the next year's challenge will be.  They get their boxes filled with parts and then they build robots and then they compete in a raucous, controlled chaos fashion. The central tenant of the post was that FIRST , which had been founded by Dean Kamen, should build a robotics competition wrapped in a social frame.  Specifically. I wanted a competition centered around older adults and activities of daily li...

Fallen Ginkgoes I have this knack for being out of town when major weather hits and Super Storm Sandy was no exception.  As she barreled down on New York  City,  I was already safely out in southern California for a meeting.  And, there I stayed through Sunday, November 4th.  I returned to two New Yorks -- the upper West side where my apartment was unscathed and the South Street Seaport area where the building housing our offices is down and out for the count. Uptown, Central Park saw some damage from the storm but they were well on their way to cleaning it up in preparation for running the 2012 NYC Marathon.  Although the official marathon was canceled, people showed up dressed to run it and with personal support crews in tow.  And run it they did even as the City began to break down the finish line. Downtown, we'd been grappling with office displacement since the storm of the century ended and we were already up and running with web mai...

African Assortment Recently, I was asked by one of my nieces to write a letter for her "Me Book" - something she had been assigned to create in class.  This is what I wrote. October 2012  Elephant Cheeks I am writing this during a chaotic time for our country.   And I keep thinking about the young women in my life and what I’d like for each of you.   I want you to grow up in a Society where your work is equally valued as that of a man and you are in charge of your own body.    There needs to be a safety net that can catch you if you stumble and fall.   Most of all, I want you to live in a Society that embraces diversity and revels in the strength that brings us as a nation. You may have noticed that this is typed and not handwritten.  I am a person who treasures the freedom a keyboard gives me to write, to edit, and to write again.  It is true that I grew up in an era where we put pen to paper.  I progressed in sc...