Living on the Edge

"Dining on the Edge."

That's the title of a show a former student of mine at Stanford, Michelle Won, is launching soon. Here she is talking with the chef in an Armenian restaurant in L.A. who was preparing sheep's testacles for her to eat.

The new show is based on a similar series by the same name. You can view this predecessor work at Michelle's Videos. I'm always happy to hear from former students. When Michelle was at Stanford, we were just getting a radio program going, thanks to the talented David Nabti. From the first moment, it was obvious that Michelle had a natural presence on-air -- whether radio or TV. She loves doing this type of work, and she’s good at it.

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"Dreaming on the Edge"

One of my friends told me her dreams are in color, she can smell things in her dreams, and taste them perfectly. She also can speak perfect English in dreams, though it is her second language.

She asked me and I realized I don't remember whether I dream in color or whether I can smell and taste things. I'm quite certain I dream in English, however. She reminded me that many of Fellini's movies were based on his dreams.

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"Playing on the Edge"

The Detroit Tigers are playing on the edge of elimination. If they lose one more game to the St. Louis Cardinals, the team that was my boyhood favorite will be eliminated in what Americans call, with a sense of entitlement, the "World Series." It actually should be called the "American Series," of course, since our national pastime is now played in many countries around the world.

And, it appears from the pre-season world games last spring, that a team made up of American-born baseball players would be unlikely to beat teams from some of baseball's hotspots, like Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Japan, and Korea.

This Sunday also marks my likely last game as a little league coach. Our team, the Rockies, has a 1-6 record and is playing the Orioles, who are 6-1. This is the playoffs, double elimination and we already have lost one last Sunday. In our two previous encounters with the Orioles, we were outscored by a cumulative 8-20.

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"Working on the Edge"

Half of all companies in Silicon Valley, where I work, are less than 5 years old. It is commonplace there to see new company nameplates go up on the doors. First comes the name, and then comes the stream of engineers -- Indian, Israeli, Malay, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, British, German, Iranian, and Vietnamese and on and on.

Many more women engineers are included in the mix these days. One of the best things any parent can do for their kid's future employment options is to make sure they are not only computer-literate, but computer-sophisticate.

Learning basic programming skills can start by age 12 or so. The child who does will have a wider range of options when (s)he grows to working age. Even some computer games can be exceptionally useful. Playing in these challenging multi-player virtual environments fosters new skills and perspectives that may help them succeed in business.

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"Partying on the Edge"

Tonight I am invited to a birthday party. My youngest is 8, which to her way of thinking, has been a long time coming. For what has seemed to be the longest time, she's been 7. The age 8 loomed out there; others reached it, but for her it remained elusive.

"How long until my birthday, Daddy?" she started asking me months ago.

Now, she's made it. It's a pretty big deal (if you're 8ish.) Now, she's reaching the tail end of the single digit ages. Most of us spend most of our lives in the two-digit numbers.

A friend told me today I have to live to 100, the three-digit level. I said that I doubted I could do that, because I'd probably forget to.

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"Weather of the Edge"

It's hot again, in San Francisco. Windows are open, skirts are short. I'm going for a walk, to do some errands.

But winter is sending us postcards from the future. The leaves are falling from my fruit trees. The pumpkin plant has died and shriveled, but three tiny green baby gourds still persist, so I may "harvest" them for Halloween.

Not exactly what I'd envisioned back in the spring, but then again, I never imagined I could have reached a place where I would be as satisfied with the conditions of my life as I am today.

It ain't perfect but it never has been. What it is is as good as it gets and that's good enough for me...

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