November 29th, 2022, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem banned TikTok on state devices for government officials and contractors. Other states have followed suit with over 28 having a complete or partial ban on the application on any state owned, operated, or managed device.  School districts from K-12 around the country are doing the same, as well as some universities and colleges.  The Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of the House Catherine Szpindor had warned in August that the TikTok app represented a high risk to users and the Committee on House Administration authorized the CAO Office of Cybersecurity to “initiate the removal of TikTok Social Media Services from all House-managed devices”. This ban of TikTok on Federal government devices was proposed by the Trump administration originally, though never enacted.

At the start of the new year, societally, I always get this vague sense of a monumentality or opportunity for great change. Many folks make resolutions and reset their intentions for personal or professional growth. Time moves a little slower for building facades than for us humans, but intentions and resolutions can still apply. Much like fashion or music, even building facades have trends and movements. They just can’t really respond or adapt as fast as us. In light of the new year, we’re going to look forward by looking back at arguably the greatest shift in architectural history.

As park guests entered the Westworld theme park in the HBO series Westworld, they had the option of selecting the white cowboy hat or the black hat.  White, as you may have guessed, represents the good guy—the upstanding citizen who plays by the rules. The black hat is the villain, the renegade.  The Man in Black initially grabbed the white hat off the rack—he considered himself a virtuous, loyal soon-to-be-husband with a keen sense of integrity.  He believed himself to be devoid of self-serving actions.  Needless to say, he thought very little of his friend who invited him and demonstrated various acts of violence and hedonism (his friend chose the black hat).  

An evening in Dubai during the height of the pandemic, this night was one to remember. Here I am riding on a camel heading to a dinner in the desert. The air was still and the sky was calm. The food and the hookah was hittin’ too (translated was very good). The night was going really good, but my mind was occupied and for some reason, this time it was noticeable to the people I was with. Towards the end of the night, my friend and I, a successful entrepreneur, and philanthropist were talking about the state of the world and our place in it. I guess my answers weren’t really inspiring to her enough, so she asked me an important question – "Why don't you let people really know you, like really? I’ve worn the proverbial “I’m good mask” for so long, secretly, I wasn’t comfortable revealing it, mainly to myself. The separation of the creator from the man.

At the top of every New Year lies a mountain of pressure – pressure to be better, achieve more, reinvent ourselves. The familiar urge we have to “go big or go home” rears its ugly head, tempting us to go all in; Quit drinking cold turkey, bury ourselves in a mountain of vegetables and drown in green juices, or to hit the gym 7 days a week (despite fatigue, because “pain is weakness leaving the body”) and achieve the ideal body, an image fed to us by devious marketing schemes and compounded by the male/female/non-binary gaze. We’ve all been there, standing on our soapboxes of self-loathing, flailing our arms and screaming “NEW YEAR, NEW ME!”. But what if instead we stood back and took a critical look at the person we have become? What would we see? I prefer to take stock in the achievements, failures, moments and memories that have erected the person who stands proudly before you. Flaws and all, I choose to honor the person that I am, rather than completely discount her and attempt to eradicate her from existence. Now, I’m not saying you can’t have goals for the New Year. I’m just saying not to throw the baby out with the bathwater (what did that baby even do to you anyway, and where is its mother?). 

I have big eyes. Not a metaphor, I mean, anatomically. I was born with big eyes, and I have had big eyes ever since. When I was a child, kids used to laugh at me because of my eyes. In day trips, if I fell asleep on the bus, my eyes were left somewhat open. I know it because whenever I woke up kids were staring at me laughing. It’s a kind of memory one doesn’t forget. Along the years, I overcame the embarrassment and grew up to respect the issue. My big eyes appeared to be a tool. I learned that I have a rather good sightseeing. I started wearing glasses for short distances two years ago, by the age of fifty five.

It’s the version of you before the disorganized phenomenon your Real Life driving anywhere through the sweet corn 

Miniature No. 2

I think so much in life is about duality. In thinking about facing a new year it's impossible for me not to face the old one.