Meeting ex-Supertramp multi-instrumentalist Roger Hodgson in Phoenix

To say the least, 2016 has been an interesting year on many levels. For starters, I wrote less that at any point since 2007. (As usual, I churned out a bunch of data-related posts for SAS.) New friends came and some departed.

I have a great deal to be thankful for.

Brass tacks, I have a great deal to be thankful for. Highlights include:

• I started my new position as a lecturer at ASU. About a year ago, I set out to obtain a full-time professor position at a progressive school and I did just that.
• Message Not Received won an Axiom Award.
• The publication of the Chinese Version of The Visual Organization.
• Having coffee for an hour with Steve Hogarth of Marillion was surreal. I had interviewed him before a bunch of times for The Huffington Post, but I’ll never forget the happenstance of seeing him on the street that Saturday morning in San Francisco. For an hour at Starbucks, we talked about politics and life.
• Interviewing Steve Rothery, Mark Kelly, Roger Hodgson (pictured above), and John Petrucci didn’t suck either. HuffPo may not pay me a nickel, but there are forms of payment beyond money.

On the downside, the US presidential election left me gutted, scared, and confused. Now that I’m past the shock, I need to understand the outcome. To this end and on a friend’s recommendation, I am reading The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion.