Author: Frank

Music…

The Way It Is

The Way It Is

Bruce Hornsby and The Range

and Words

Standing in line, marking time
Waiting for the welfare dime
‘Cause they can’t buy a job
The man in the silk suit hurries by
As he catches the poor old lady’s eyes
Just for fun, he says, “Get a job”

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Having arrived at the University of Miami, I started the ‘when-you-grow-up’ portion of my life.  Everything that led up to this moment was automatic and somewhat scripted.  I’ve now landed firmly on the “Uhm, now what?” portion of the movie.  The first order of business was getting through orientation and registration.

Having gotten through those tasks, I met other incoming freshmen as I traversed my floor.  George lived a few doors down from my room, and through him I met a number of other friends, among them was Ted.

Continue reading “The way friendship is” →

Music…

Don’t You (Forget About Me)

The Breakfast Club Soundtrack

Simple Minds

and Words

Hey, hey, hey, hey!

Hey, hey, hey, hey!

Won’t you come see about me?
I’ll be alone, dancing, you know it, baby
Tell me your troubles and doubts
Giving me everything inside and out

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

On a crisp Tuesday morning, I walk the short distance from my building to the nearby building with the cafeteria.  I settle on a familiar table in a section of the large room.  The dining room is sparsely populated; the collections of people resemble islands in an archipelago in a sea of tables.  I walk the short distance to the grill station where I order breakfast on the kiosk, typically an omelet and a side of hashbrowns.  I proceed to the espresso stand, where I order my tall latte and a pastry, often a bacon maple bar.  Now, I play a tranquil waiting game; it’s a race between getting the coffee, the food, or my friends arriving.

Slowly people drift in and sit down.  Some walk directly from their cars to the cafeteria; they place their coats and bags next to the table as they sit down.  Having arrived at work earlier, others wander from their office to the cafeteria.  We may talk about anything and often do.  Topics typically center around technology and news.  Occasionally, we bring up current projects; oftentimes, having a diverse set of geeks as a sounding board for designs or approaches.  Sometimes we chat about deeply personal topics which dominate our attention.

Continue reading “The Breakfast Club” →

Music…

Night in That Land

Shadow of Time

Nightnoise

and Words

[Instrumental]

I spent my early childhood on the sunny island of Puerto Rico.  My dad ran a restaurant which he literally built with his own hands.  It was both our home and our business.  You could walk directly from the street into our dining room, where my mom would seat you in any one of a modest number of tables.  A cigarette vending machine sat to one side, where you could buy packs of cigarettes unsupervised.  Upon entering the coins, you would pull on these long handles as the mechanism loudly dropped the cigarettes onto a bin at the bottom.

A large ice cream machine occupied much of the storefront.  It also served as a counter to greet customers.  It housed large stainless steel cylindrical bins of prepared ice cream and kept them cold and firm.  On the left sat the ice cream maker, with huge oddly shaped metal instruments that looked like medieval torture devices.

Continue reading “A sunny tranquility” →

Music…

Radar Love

Moontan

Golden Earring

and Words

I’ve been driving all night, my hands wet on the wheel
There’s a voice in my head that drives my heel
It’s my baby calling, says “I need you here”
And it’s a half past four and I’m shifting gear

When she is lonely and the longing gets too much
She sends a cable coming in from above
Don’t need no phone at all

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Tom shows up in my team one day, decades ago.  He is funny, and we get along fabulously.  He moved from the Chicago area.  Tom and his family are apart on that first Thanksgiving while they wrap up the year, and I invite him to my home for dinner.  This started an enduring friendship.

Once I met his family, I observed his dedication to his wife and sons.  He adored and admired his wife.  He respected and advocated for his kids.  Tom once asked if I would mentor his son.  I would have happily mentored him but ultimately found him a better mentor.  He was the prototypical family man.

Continue reading “Tom is my copilot” →

Music…

Angel

Surfacing

Sarah McLachlan

and Words

Spend all your time waiting
For that second chance
For a break that would make it okay
There’s always one reason
To feel not good enough
And it’s hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction
Oh beautiful release

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Having attended Catholic school in Puerto Rico, we discussed religion in general and angels in particular.  However, I don’t believe that any of us has a real understanding of what it’s all like, not sufficient enough to truly describe it to someone else.  Those conversations in my youth were more superficial than descriptive.

Years later, I chatted with a friend about trying to describe something common without a frame of reference.  Imagine talking on the phone with someone and needing to distinguish between ‘left’ and ‘right’ without making another reference (like on which side of the street do people drive).  Similarly, how do you describe to a blind person what certain colors look like having never seen them?  I found that talking about religion was often like this.  We had directions to accept certain ideas as truisms, but most discussions were ultimately unfulfilling.

Continue reading “Celestial companion or narcotic?” →

Music…

Take on Me

Hunting High and Low

a-ha

and Words

Talking away
I don’t know what I’m to say
I’ll say it anyway
Today is another day to find you
Shying away
I’ll be coming for your love. OK?
Take on me (Take on me)
Take me on (Take on me)
I’ll be gone
In a day or two

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I grew up a child of the 80’s.  The melding of video transformed the experience from merely listening to music to seeing moving images.  I spend hours tuned to MTV, though somewhat in the background.  We never got the “stereo hookup” that they kept pushing on the commercials.  I imagine they were merely RCA outputs that piped that signal from the television through your stereo.  It was just as well, as the televisions in our house were either large console television, about the size of a fireplace, or a modest 13″ set that sat in my bedroom.  Their speakers were tinny and miserable, but they resembled the washed-out screens that flashed those grainy images.

I discovered music alternating between preset stations on the radio and whatever played on MTV.  My sisters and I were fascinated by the videos.  For weeks, the VJ’s spoke about Rick Springfield’s video premiere for “Don’t Talk to Strangers”, to which we tuned intently.  We imagined it would be a monumental event from all the hype; we didn’t anticipate it would be literally just the playing of the video and then promptly on to the next video…  No other videos by Rick Springfield, nor interviews.  We were more perplexed than disappointed.

Continue reading “Slowly learning that life is okay” →

Music…

Amanda

Third Stage

Boston

and Words

Babe, tomorrow’s so far away
There’s something I just have to say
I don’t think I could hide what I’m feelin’ inside
Another day, knowin’ I love you

And I, I’m getting too close again
I don’t wanna see it end
If I tell you tonight, would you turn out the lights
And walk away knowin’ I love you?

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

On a fall weekend morning in 1986, I pack my 1966 Mustang, my new-for-me car to the brim, but it still couldn’t contain all the things I needed.  My family, my mom and sisters, packed the remainder of my belongings.  Next, we embarked on a nearly hour-long trip down the coast to Coral Gables.  I drove south on I-95, the familiar freeway that travels all the way up the East Coast, down to where it ends; it empties onto US-1.  Finally, we arrive at our destination, a couple of blocks off US-1.  I pull into the unfamiliar parking lot, lock the car, and walk to the front desk of Pearson Hall.

The desk bustled with chaotic activity; to this day, I don’t know how I got situated.  I gave them my name and it started from there.  The young people, likely other students, simply cross-referenced me in lists on clipboards.  They efficiently found my dorm room, handed me a key, and gave me directions.  My dorm room was in the 1R wing; it sat between the ground floor and the second floor, up half a flight of stairs.

Continue reading “The chaotic beginnings of higher education” →

Music…

Highway to Hell

Highway to Hell

AC/DC

and Words

Livin’ easy
Lovin’ free
Season ticket on a one way ride

Askin’ nothin’
Leave me be
Takin’ everything in my stride

Don’t need reason
Don’t need rhyme
Ain’t nothin’ I’d rather do

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I spent the summer before my senior year in Miami.  However, I didn’t sit surfside on the beach as you might expect; I spent it in a classroom.  I spent the school year sharpening my skills at mathematics and programming.  I didn’t know what I’d be doing with it; I simply knew that I was good at it, and I enjoyed it.  In the mid 1980’s there were really only two activities for computers:  games and word processing.  And really, we had game consoles for the former as well.  There were a handful of us who opened the inches of documents in three-ring binders that came with computers.  We meticulously looked at these tomes and cryptic references to something called BASIC, and that’s how we started programming. 

Truthfully, I didn’t even know about the summer program.  Ms. Barba, one of my teachers, pulls me aside and mentions it to me, she encouraged me to apply.  I don’t even remember the application; I honestly think that she simply wrote me a glowing letter of recommendation or perhaps placed a phone call.  This is the same teacher who guilted me about cutting school too frequently years before, “Mr. Wong, you’re out of school more often than you’re in school.”  However, she watched me changed course over the two years that followed.  I’m eternally thankful for her faith in me.

Continue reading “Paved with good intentions” →