On an evening during the mid 1990’s, I sat at a local bar named Waldo’s.  It’s what you’d expect from a bar, except that they also played live music.  Occasionally, The Beatniks would play here; they covered many classic tunes.  I remember mostly the Beatles covers.  I hang with some of the friends that work at the cafeteria in the next building.

Naturally, I chat with a number of other people at the bar; one sharply dressed Indian man chats with me for a bit.  Eventually, he pauses and declares, “Isn’t it ironic, here we talk… both of us similar as Indians, yet different.”  I know precisely what he meant.  He immigrated from the Asian country of India, and I am (Native American) Indian.  Except I’m not an Indigenous person, not even close.  I was born from two Chinese parents. 

Continue reading “Learning about ‘presenting as’”

While I won’t say that I’m a great tennis enthusiast, I watched a number of matches between iconic players in my teens.  Naturally, I enjoyed watching John McEnroe, the ‘Bad Boy’ of tennis as well as Jimmy Connors.  I can still hear McEnroe’s voice bellowing from the tennis court, “You cannot be serious!  That ball was on the line!”.

I recently watched an old video clip of McEnroe and Connors in a match.  First, while Connors served the game, McEnroe lost a point on a close call.  Next, McEnroe went on a minutes-long tirade about the absurdity of the call.  Connors simply stood and watched in disbelief of the tantrum.  Of course, the officials didn’t budge, and the call remained.  Once game play finally resumed, Connors launched his next two serves deep into the stands, resulting in a double fault.

Continue reading “Thinking through diversity”

As I grew up in Florida in my teens, we spent many summer days in the movie theaters.  During the 1980’s we did not have access to the internet, of course.  We got the listings for the movies at each theater and their show times from the local newspaper.  Alternatively, you may also call the phone number for the movie theater; each theater established a phone line that played their listings and times on repeat.  My sisters and I had a handful of these numbers committed to memory.  I swear that I’m not making this up.

Today, the movie experience is vastly different.  First, we open a web browser on the computer or mobile app on the phone.  Second, we pick the movie and time in our favorite theater days ahead of time.  Next, we select the seats that we want or alternatively pick a different time if we can’t find good seats.  Enter your credit card number and reserve those seats.  Upon arriving at the theater, simply show them the QR code and head to your seats.  You don’t need to handle cash, nor do you need paper tickets anymore.

Continue reading “The web search as the societal mirror”