Circa 1986, as I prepared for Halloween, I had everything in place—my costume, my bag, my route. But you, you had something else entirely brewing. I remember you stirring a huge bucket, thick smoke curling up from it. “Mom’s making her homemade root beer again!” You made this…
In 2012, I co-founded a company (https://EVALS.NET) that built a SaaS product out of my basement in California (yes, a basement in California—I know, rare). It started with an idea, a friend dropping by, and a prototype that barely held together. That friend made three phone calls…
"Narcissism should be illegal," we said to our lawyers. They understood the impulse. We had a business partner who is a narcissistic sociopath. Not clinical. Descriptive. Someone else's words, but accurate. The kind of person who gets caught lying and responds by lying about the lying.…
MOM. Mom? MOMMMMM!!! HELLO? She’s probably reading a damn book. Sure enough, if you weren’t responding, you were somewhere in the house, utterly lost in another novel. I could’ve told you I saw Santa, who handed me a ticket to Australia with aliens to sell gift cards…
Growing up, as I reflect on my childhood, we had so few rules that they were practically invisible. You encouraged us to live freely—to color outside the lines, to ignore the confines of lanes, and to embrace creativity in every aspect of life, no matter what. When Jackass aired…
I remember when you went to Germany and Austria while I was in 4th grade. You and Dad brought back one of the best gifts I’d ever received—a marionette. I was fascinated by it, spending hours learning its movements and figuring out every detail. I loved it so…
I am grateful for the smiles of memories you sewed for us. Do you remember sending me that water balloon launcher during my mission in Holland in 2001? I can still feel the smile that spread across my face when I opened it. I had called you many times, ready…
November was always the month when we would come together daily and share what we're thankful for. I'm thankful for you. I still don’t know if you were really there with me, carrying me through my 2023 accident. Lindsey told me I was crying your…
Whether you're in C#, Python, Java, PHP, TypeScript, or Ruby, somewhere in your codebase there's a dictionary getting passed around like a mystery grab bag at a white elephant party. "Here's some stuff. Figure it out." Look familiar? public void ProcessUser(IDictionary&…
A narcissist will never admit they have a problem. If confronted with their own bad behavior they will do their very best to make people believe they are the victim. A narcissist deflects because their ego can't handle being wrong. A sociopath deflects because it works. They'…