This is my "Now" page as per Derek Sivers' initiative, with the additional ability to see past and (expected/hoped-for...) future elements.
(Admission/Note: A thread that weaves through my entire life, past, present, and future — Everything I care about doing takes 10x longer to get to an "I feel OK/proud sharing" state than I wish and estimate — even when, re estimating, I take all such past experiences into account...)
- For several decades, and for diverse reasons, I have been wanting to start a blog. Finally, in 2024, I began working on this in earnest, implementing desired functionality and appearance for δroplets.
Like virtually everything in (my) life, the task has proved SO much more work than I expected. That said, it is now thankfully at a point where I feel I can make it public and start focusing more on content.
(PS: Without the coding help of AIs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, it would have been SO much more work yet. To these AIs and their developers, thank you.)
Further Back...
1958 - 2024
I was born via Immaculate Gestation, metabolized too many pepperoni pizzas, and then started this blog.
In the interim, some of my activities included growing "up", f*cking up, and starting TechnoFrolics.
-- March 2026 --
Currently, in terms of stuff I consider interesting (to me, others):
- I am working on this blog. (Including, eventually, a
multi-part missive to Derek Sivers himself.) - Also involved in the creation of several FrameGlide | Spin Browser installations for museums and nature centers.
And last but most certainly not least, am being completely wowed by AI on a daily basis. See AI Diaries and AI Walk and Talk for more.
Significant recent updates to blog or spin-off website content:
(Note that sorting posts by Post Update date, one of the search/sort radio button options, will bring most recent items to the top.)
- Planet of the Provosts is finally up — enjoy! 🙂
My primary focus moving forward in the near/mid term will be on AI and to create additional content for δroplets. (And to take advantage of opportunities that may arise in consequence.)
Blog content will include both the written word and interactive visualizations of psychological issues.
- Additionally, I hope eventually to complete a set of in-process choreographable physical artwork animation platforms. I am committed to doing this both because I think they will be quite cool, and because I am over 10 years late delivering a set of same to a wonderful, generous man I met a decade ago. He also thought the concept was cool and, at the time(...), wanted a set for himself. More generally, he offered to help fund development as a contributing patron.
(And no, my self-esteem — and perhaps my life path itself — is not unscathed by this 10-year-and-counting delay... SC, if you happen to read this before I reconnect: My deepest regrets and apologies — "keeping up with my life's goals", re both time and money to implement, is something I have failed to adequately do on many fronts, of which this is unfortunately but one...)
PS: I am considering at some point listing potential projects I am considering and/or have started but not finished, and asking you, my readers, which most interests you.
and enjoy
good at
Kindness & Empathy
Understanding & Engineering
Art & Beauty
Math & Science
Creativity & Self Awareness
Transformation through Insights & Teaching
Physical Exercise & Music
Humor & Persistence
Visualizations and Analogies.
Thoughtful Listening, Human Connection.
Seeing (and Feeling) a Thousand Viewpoints.
Applying technical tools to emotional goals.
Sensing, Within Technical Artifacts, Echoes of the Implicit Assumptions of Their Creators.
Going Meta (Level-Stepping).
Long-Timeline Visions and Creative Efforts.
Enthusiasm and Entertainment.
Birth — Present
Timeline of life
(Additional Links: Reminiscences, One Page Bio.)
□ Be sure to check out underlined elements — dotted and solid — they offer much additional detail. □
(1958)
Born
(via "Immaculate Gestation", apparently)
(1960)
Tales from the crib
"When I turned two I was really anxious, because I'd doubled my age in a year. I thought, if this keeps up, by the time I'm six I'll be ninety." Unlike comedian Steven Wright, from whom that quote originates, I failed to adequately appreciate that threat, and thus my reported anxiety at the time must have resulted from other causes.
(1962—1972)
Only Two Rules
- Don't cross street with eyes closed.
- Don't do basement science experiments when parents were reading in bed.
- Bonus on AI front: Periodic visits by Marvin Minsky, one of the "Fathers of AI", to parent's house in Arlington MA.
- Side effect of complete freedom: Suffered from "Decision Fatigue" age 5 onward...
(1973—1976)
Science, Art, School, Animals
- High School: CSW — Cambridge School of Weston. Math and physics focus. Didn't/don't like formal gatherings: Picked up diploma with custom made RC car.
- Our beloved golden retriever, Tito, and his partner Suisette, died.
(1977)
Year in my father's lab at MIT
Learned programming on a PDP 8 DEC computer, hand-toggling in boot loader from switches on front panel. Max addressable memory 32K Words 🙂
(1978—1981)
Time at college
Princeton University. Focus physics, math, electrical engineering, computer science.
(1982—1987)
Volleyball, Standup Comedy, Therapy, Math Teaching, Cycling, Girlfriend, Parachute Jump
Insights
- Came to the painful realization that most people viewed technology simply as a tool for practical applications. This came as quite a shock, given I had always experienced it as an emotionally-expressive communication medium.
- Realized how out of touch most techies/academics were to their internal state and motivations.
- Learned that standup comedy was not, at least at my early-stage amateur level, that much fun...
-
Cycled from Boston area to Montreal, Canada.
- Began my many-decade stint as a part-time math tutor at the Harvard Extension School.
(1988—1990)
TechnoFrolics, Feminist Engineering, Affectionate Technology
- Founded TechnoFrolics, my little Somerville, MA-based design studio, to provide a structure where engineering in the service of emotional expression was the norm, not an oddity; I needed a "home". There, for over 35 years, we have been building choreographed dancing techno-artworks and interactive educational exhibits for clients across the globe.
- Struggled to come up with title for business card, eventually settling on "Feminist Engineer".
-
Built the "Dancing Trees" kinetic iron dust artwork. Was greatly appreciative of its warm reception. As part of this, wrote a dancing sculpture choreography environment.
- Wrote "Affectionate Technology" paper, included in the 1990 Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing proceedings and presented at the College Art Association national conference.
(1991—1998)
TechnoFrolics, Media Lab Talk, Various
- TechnoFrolics is a full-time job. Continue part time math tutoring at Harvard Extension School.
- Attendee at magnetic materials trade show, where dancing iron dust artwork/logo was on display, asks me "What the hell did they ever do to you to cause you to build something like that?"
- Gave presentation at MIT Media Lab, extending the "Affectionate Technology" concept — and perhaps answering the in-my-view-profound (as well as funny) question above in the process.
(1999)
FrameGlide | Spin Browser™ video explorer
- A simple idea that turns out to be magical: Bring all the wonder of timelapse, high-speed, and point-of-view video into the interactive realm.
- Within Science Museums, Nature Centers, and Medical Conferences, for over 25 years, audiences have been exploring the world and phenomena in it at their own pace, with liquid-smooth temporal control, from stop frame to billions of times normal rate.
(2000-2001)
Dancing Banners Arrive on the Scene
Choreographed fabric dance troupes make their public debut.
(2002)
Met my Significant Other
This was a good thing (from my perspective anyway... ;-).
(2013-2014)
Dancing Artworks and a Couple of Talks
- Developed ChoreoV - a computer vision-based choreography environment that allows using commercial video and animation tools to create physical artwork dances in real time.
- Gave informal presentation at Innovators to Educators Conference.
- Gave TEDx talk "Hidden Assumptions".
- Explored forcing myself to follow whatever path most scared me — or at least to not let fear be a determining factor in selecting the path.
(2015)
Pixar luminary Pete Docter, of Inside Out fame and now Pixar's Chief Creative Officer, reaches out to me after seeing the Dancing Trees artwork to express his appreciation.
(Pretty cool period, and particularly so given artwork's initial creation date being over 25 years prior.)
(2017)
(2020)
Will be writing this up as a humorous blog post when I find the time and will link to here. In the meantime, simply be assured that whatever you may have done in a Zoom meeting that embarrassed you, it will (in most cases...) pale by comparison. Feel free to use me as a baseline in order to feel better about yourself☺.
(2021)
Had "Nervous Breakdown"
Several large life stressors, of which covid pandemic was only one of several, combined to be more (apparently) than I could handle.
(What I learned of interest: It is not viable to spend 24x7 "looking over the precipice at your own death on the rocks below" — regardless of your estimate of the likelihood of such a thing happening in the short term or not.)
(2022)
Made new friends
During covid lockdown, made friends with some delightful squirrel visitors. Finally, a couple of years later, found time to post. (Be sure, in link, to check out video of squirrel "yoga".)
(2023)
Got involved, for hopefully the last time, with complex, one-off museum interactive
My strength, and interest, is developing and refining things over time, not creating one-offs where there is never enough time and money to do it right.
(2024—2025)
Now-ish
-
Became completely enamored with AI — out of this world cool. Changed my life. "The Aliens have Landed" (and they are in significant part us).
See AI Diaries and AI walk and Talk.
-
Finally got a blog intro/structure I was sufficiently happy with to make public — δroplets! (This was also when my first interactive visualization of psychological dynamics was added to the blog.)
-
Made real what had been just a funny phrase from my standup period 30+ years ago — Planet Of The Provosts!
-
Realize I am getting old(er).
Coincidentally learn during video call that not only was I older than the client I was speaking to, but I was older than their mother. (Well, at least I am not yet older than their grandmother... 🙂)
