Annexation, invasion, and cultural outcomes — What started as a simple lark to do the What Three Words writing challenge took a surprise turn. I pulled up this picture of a Medieval Revival tower I took while standing on Yrjönkatu in central Helsinki. I picture the oval interior lined with books in an eagle’s nest library…

And I think I finally get the appeal of digital collectibles now — I’ve been intrigued by the idea of non-fungible tokens (NFT) ever since I first heard of them last year. But they intimidated me. It seemed questionable whether or not NFTs were worth the money needed to invest in them. But this year I wanted to understand the appeal of these…

A tour of my language history — My hometown is Perl. Not the German town bordered by France and Luxembourg but the Practical Extraction and Reporting Language developed by Larry Wall in 1987 and used to decode the human genome ten years later. Perl is a fast-moving gritty place filled with one-liner hacks. There is no garbage…

The Romantic Guitar That Can Only Be Seen From the Sky — Some people create amazing things. I am stunned by their ambition and perseverance. As I came across one of these amazing projects, I decided to combine my fascination with an awesome challenge. Sometimes a fascination for a project brings me closer to my own sense of romance. In this case…

Three Words Writing Challenge — Traveling in Washington State, my partner and I had the opportunity to visit the Makah Indian Reservation. Within its bounds is the most westerly point in the United States but more importantly, is the fishing village of Neah Bay and its people. The importance of fishing is quite clear from…

Three Words Writing Challenge — I found myself traveling from California to Boston to take my son to college and thinking why not keep going and visit Iceland. The idea of travel including such an exotic place was enticing and in 2007 Iceland was still off the beaten path. The airfare from Boston to Reykjavík…

Three Words Writing Challenge — Something was different today. The sand beneath my feet wasn’t as pale or as soft as usual, and there was a bite of cold in the air. As I made my way across the beach, towards my favourite spot, thick swirls of black cloud began to consume the sky. It…

Three Words Writing Challenge — Going to Spenger’s only occurred when visiting my “city grandparents” in Albany, California. Situated just north of Berkeley, the town to this day has main street charm and quiet streets laid out in a grid paralleling the shoreline. Though Spengler’s was as close as you can get to the water…