About eight and a half years ago (on September 14, 2001) I wrote an article in response to the shock and horror of the 9/11 disaster. Yesterday someone found that old article and reprinted it on their blog. I’d forgotten I ever wrote it, but the message is just as important now as it was [...]

There are different kinds of people in the world – we’re all aware of that, sometimes painfully so – and especially when our own “commonsense” way of doing things collides with someone else’s interpretation of sensible behavior.
“No right-minded person would behave that way,” we tell ourselves… and anybody else who’ll listen.
Unfortunately, we’re not quite right, [...]

There’s so much anger in the world. And much of it seems to be already primed, cocked and needing only the gentle nudge of a hair trigger to fire off at whoever gets in the way. It can be worth your life to piss somebody off on the freeway or at the post office. And [...]

Over the centuries, experts have categorized personalities according to a wide variety of systems. One of the more recent (and useful) of these is the unlikely but surprisingly effective “True Colors” system. Though it has only four divisions, and you’d think that’s not enough to cover the seemingly endless varieties of human behavior, many professionals [...]

Below is a note I recently sent out to a bunch of my friends and acquaintances regarding how they can slow the growth of spam in their email inbox. Although it’s off-topic, I’m sharing it because you may find it useful to know what kind of people are out there manipulating and taking advantage of [...]

In line with saying ‘yes’ to virtually any realistic request or suggestion, I agreed to play Santa Clause to a group of 30 Japanese pre-school kids here in Thailand. Many of these children were born here, to parents who are either retired Japanese who have started new families abroad, or who work for a Japanese [...]

Maybe you’ve seen kids growing up in the same family, and yet, despite having virtually identical influences, they’re as different as chalk and cheese. This is so common it shouldn’t even surprise us any more, and yet I still hear folks remarking on it. Somehow such folks seem to expect kids to be cookie-cuttered out [...]

As of today, I’m no longer using 1ShoppingCart, the company that has managed my mailing list for the past 5 years or so. Why? I don’t use most of their (slightly expensive) services, so it’s basically too much tool for the job.
What This Means for You
I first announced this change more than a month ago [...]

The study of personality types is fascinating territory, especially when we start learning to use the way different types interact with each other.
For example, have you ever felt that someone you know – perhaps your partner – can sometimes act uncomfortably clingy or maybe just too damn helpful? Maybe they’re not really. Maybe they’re only [...]

Last month, I announced a contest to name a new website I was planning as a tribute to my recently departed Mom, Lucile I. Burke, and her poetry.
And We Have a Winner
LinesFromTheHeart.com – a name suggested by Virginia. Actually, a lot of good names were submitted, and it was hard picking just one. I’d sit [...]