Let me tell you something about music.  There are rules to music.  At least, there are rules to the kind of music we play in our culture.  There are no real rules to music; play anything you want.  But, if you want the notes to sound like Western Euro-centric music, you have to follow certain rules, such as using that eight note octave scale.  Start using a different scale, and your music sounds like it came from somewhere else, from some other culture. We grew up with our music, whether it was Bach or the Beatles, we got used to it.  It has become a part of us.  And it has an effect on...

My first novel, Natural Selection, has just become available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  Natural Selection is a murder mystery set in the Los Angeles Harbor area.  It takes place in the fictional community of Harbor Park.  It is the story of a detective on the trail of a serial killer who has targeted gang families for execution.  Follow the links below to get your copy.  I hope you like it. Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Natural-Selection/Stephen-Wilson/e/9781432746100/?itm=1&usri=1 Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Selection-Stephen-Wilson/dp/1432746103/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253576135&sr=8-1 Or...

It’s been very interesting to hear some people complaining about the idea of paying for the health care costs of illegal aliens, and even of legal aliens, for that matter.  I guess it doesn’t occur to those folks that it might not be a good idea to have millions of sick people walking around passing their illnesses onto us.  Or that we’ll still end up paying for them when they end of up having to go to the emergency room for treatment, which bogs down the trauma centers and makes health care more expensive for all of us.  You can only judge a society by how it treats its weakest members. ...

“What do you want to run a marathon for?” I would hear when I told people I was going to run twenty-six point two miles. “You must be nuts!” “The psychiatric department is upstairs,” my doctor said, after I asked him to certify that I was in good enough health to go through the training. “You’re going to ruin your knees,” my kung fu teacher warned me. But I was determined.  My wife, Becky, and I had run countless five and ten kilometer races.  We had run a ten mile race up in Santa Barbara (or down, depending upon your orientation).  We found the thought of completing a race...

In the movie “Mallrats” there is a character who spends the better part of the film staring at a three dimensional picture.  You remember those pictures, don’t you?  You stare at a picture for a while, and after a bit, an image of a sailboat or kitty cat or train or whatever seems to pop out at you.  The poor character in the film seems to be the only one who isn’t able to see the image.  I always had a hard time with those pictures until I learned that I could see the image faster by crossing my eyes. I have always loved optical illusions.  I especially love those illustrations which...