Thang Nguyen 555

Cultures on Collision Course

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With some short-term relief work in Asia/Africa and long stint in Telecom, Thang also earned a B.A. at Pennsylvania State University. M.A. in Communication at Wheaton Graduate School, M.A. in Cross-Cultural Communication at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Boston. In addition, he earned a CELTA – classes taken in Hanoi for cultural re-immersion.

Tag: Bill Gates

  • Time as equalizer

    Presidential terms last four years.  Our life expectancy, used to be much less, now stands in the mid-70’s depends on the air quality near you. It’s an allotment. Non-negotiable. Except for a few variables e.g.unique gene pool, diet, exercise, stress level and accidents. Some people even wish they were dead.  If you drag on day in and day…

  • Monsoon and Moonfest

    Overhearing some people talking about rain in Dalat, Vietnam‘s mountainous area, I thought back to a time and a place where innocence was shred like old skin. You see, growing up in Vietnam even in the midst of the war, was still something to be cherished. You might have neighbor’s funeral with flag draped over…

  • Reading Idea Man

    What would you do if you hit the PowerBall jackpot? Paul Allen, Idea Man, had several ideas: space travel, mind mapping and music. What would you do if you had no money at all? You would day-dream (travel inside your mind), visualize what you would do if  you had money (like Charlie Chaplin, leaning out of the…

  • Turn, turn

    Just as soon as it is unbearably hot, it rains. The season turns. All we are is Dust in the Wind, sings the Kansas. But before that, one more stanza. Take it to the limits. What are the chances for some friends to turn to the guy sitting next to him at a random cafe,…

  • Shame and Stigma

    Making small talks on New Year‘s morning, I mentioned various distant relatives, among whom a handsome ping-pong playing cousin of mine. I remembered him as 60’s looking, hair, glasses and short shorts. He was later married with kids before got  sent to re-education camp. While he was away, his wife had an affair and made…

  • Micro Trend, Macro World

    Economy of scale, strength in numbers, linear growth. Out of the 7 Billion of us, almost half live in the cities (hints: pollution, traffic congestion, high crime rate, time crunch, shrinking quality of life, more opportunities but unsustainable). I read about China’s sewer cooking oil, crocodiles roaming the streets of Bangkok, and tent city on Wall…

  • If you could read me

    You would find that I am surprised by the number of employees Google and Apple employed only 75,000 combined (compared that with HP, GM or US Government‘s). You would find that I still remember “the jumpers” on 9/11, and that we lost good men and women on United Flight 93, as well as Peter Jennings of ABC…

  • Life’s soundtrack

    I have just received a photo showing a hot-air balloon over Seattle, with me and Geoffrey in the basket. We just need a soundtrack to add to it. The puffy hot air, the wind which carried us over the lush-green scenery with Bill Gates himself living on the ground. If given a choice, I choose “Theme…

  • What’s eating the man up inside

    Instead of more career choices, he now faces 20 choices of jeans. People are debating about a gender-free society (painting nail polish on his son’s toes). When he finally got his tie collection under control, they went “business casual” on him (Steve Ballmer couldn’t cope with this). Even though it says “Facebook”, most people just…

  • 3D and 4G

    At the most elementary level, we got the chip set. That is about to change, from “flat like a sheet of paper”” to 3D chip, announced Intel (which made Applied Materials jump to its 3.9 Billion acquisition of Varian Semiconductor to keep pace). Our world is about to change once again, not to the tune…