On this Father's Day, 2023, I'd like to share two excerpts from my forthcoming novel about the Chinese immigration experience through Angel Island in the early 1900's (Bridge Across The Sky, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Fall 2024) that were inspired by memories of my father.
The opening stanza of the novel is based on the only story I ever heard my father tell about his younger days.… [more]
My Mastodon call
A lot of people are looking for a Twitter replacement these days. Some have considered Mastodon, the decentralized platform that describes itself as "Social Networking that's not for sale."
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This is the first of a series of posts I'll be making about how political positions we hold compare with the policies of the other countries of the world. Often, the propaganda of the political parties within this country can give us a distorted view of what's normal, and the "echo chambers" that we create for ourselves through our social media circles and our choice of news sources can distort that view even more.… [more]
This is my regular guide to the most effective ways to contribute to Democratic electoral victories.
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The publisher of one of my books just informed me that the book won an award from a contest they entered it into, but instead of posting about my win everywhere I can, I'm writing this post in which I'm not even going to mention the name of the book or the award, because I don't believe the award is legitimate.… [more]
This was my winning entry to the 2021 US Go Congress's Bob High Memorial Song and Poetry Contest.
The invasion sequences were created by Gopro Yeonwoo.
The music is based on "Secret Agent Man" by P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri
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I've invented, or maybe just reinvented, a new kind of chess problem that is (I hope) immune to being solved by chess engines. It involves one or both sides having two kings!
Other than that, all the other rules of the game stay the same, so these problems still feel like normal chess problems. They just involve these two extra rules dealing with the new situations that can arise when you have two kings:
I normally post these guides to political action in election years, but the lesson of the last four years is that there are serious problems in this country that require ongoing action. So here are my recommendations for groups to support and — perhaps even more importantly — actions that we can take to continue mending the fabric of our society.… [more]
As you probably know, the 2020 elections are not over yet. Two contests remain: the two Georgia Senate seats, which will determine which party controls the Senate for the first two years of the Biden/Harris administration. In those two years, we can either witness actual grownups begin to govern this country again for the good of all, or watch Mitch McConnell obstruct everything we need to be doing.… [more]
Starting in 2023, I'll be expanding my social media presence to include two promising would-be Twitter/Facebook replacements: