Gary Gocek

 

LEAP OF FAITH . BLOG on Google's Blogspot
Blogs and Articles
LinkedIn ... Facebook
@garygocek at Twitter and Mastodon
PGP public key ... (About PGP)
Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator ISTJ*
Association for Computing Machinery (joined 1980) ... I have written book reviews for IEEE Computer and SIGCAS.

I attended Liverpool, NY Central Schools (1963-1976). I earned a BS in CS in 1981 from Rochester Inst. of Tech. and was a resident (1977-1980) of the acclaimed Computer Science House. (See my CSH page). I retired in 2023 from a career in software development (most recently full-stack, Microsoft/Azure). Scroll around for information about my family, tech, music, spiritual and other interests!

I was elected to the Liverpool Fine Arts Hall of Fame in 2009. I received a scholarship in 2009 from the Polish Heritage Society of Rochester in recognition of work on the PHSR web site. I received a volunteer award from the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in 1996. I was active in Scouting.

Gary Gocek Live - where to find Gary in person.
The Gary Gocek podcast - readings and musical performances of published and original works.
A playlist of my acoustic music recordings.

I have attended (6/99, 2/02, 2/03, 2/06, 2/11) SummerSongs. Sue and I like Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen. I have marched, instructed and volunteered with pageantry organizations. Here are the lrics to Jabka, a polka.

V-Day ... Willow Domestic Violence Center ... Project Liberty Action Network ... Stand Up to Jewish Hate. Join a professional society in your field and embrace its code of ethics.

Promote community service, church (etc.) and the arts. People learn to succeed when they're able to interact with successful people. Diversity on its own does not ensure success, but no one starts out "successful". Everyone should be given a chance to succeed. It's OK to address failure, but don't discriminate against someone who hasn't yet had a chance to succeed. People tend to live and work with others who are in a similar stage of life, so where can a person just starting to climb the ladder of success interact with successful people? One of the few welcoming environments is a place of worship. Are you looking for role models? Go to church, synagogue, mosque, coven, etc. Are you a successful person looking to improve your community? Go to your place of worship and welcome others.

It's not enough to vote: don't vote for a liar. Donald lost, election fraud claims are lies. Hillary deleted classified data from her server at home, "personal email" claims are lies. Joe and Mitch are too old, "doing fine" claims are lies.

Sometimes abortion is the best choice, but three considerations have value and must be weighed: mothers' body autonomy, fetal rights and fathers' rights.

Godwin's Law ... Jokes ... Magnetic Poetry® seen on our fridge: * pull up my little wedgey roughly * Dan is a gridiron champion * here be Gocek country * flood the symphony of mud mountain * burn not the ugly blister * dad is a tremendously fat huge pig eating dinosaur * stride through chocolate gardens, they shadow death as do my tremendous muscles
Art is not a thing; it is a way. - Elbert Hubbard, American author, c. 1900.
The obstacle is the path. - Zen proverb.
It doth confound our merriment. - "Beyond the Fringe" revue, from "So That's the Way You Like It", 1964 (Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller).
Fourth floor! Clocks, locks, socks, smocks, and langerayyyy (lingerie)! - Daffy Duck, "Looney Tunes" character.
The software isn't finished until the last user is dead. - Maybe Sidney Markowitz.**
Social Security is an entitlement. - Gary Gocek, 2023.

* Regarding my Myers-Briggs type of ISTJ, this preference was reported by "the MBTI Instrument" in 2017. I had previously taken the instrument around 1990 and my preference then was a cross between INTJ/INFJ. My intuitive "N" had changed strongly to a sensing "S". I attribute this to a change from my younger days when I was full of innovative ideas, but nowadays prefer standards and processes. A trainer in 2017 says we don’t intrinsically change, but over time our preferences may change, such as after 30+ years in jobs that emphasize standards and processes. ISTJs comprise about 11% of the US population, but specialized groups such as lay and clergy leaders in my mainline Protestant diocese may have different demographics, and my type is less common there.

** Regarding Sidney Markowitz, I recall seeing this first in a magazine article shortly after graduating from college and in my first real programming job, in the early 1980s. It's possible the magazine was "Creative Computing", but I don't think so. The article listed several computer-related one-liners. I saved the paper article for a while, but apparently discarded it. I recall the article quoted NASA sources and I also recall the article named the source for this quote with only a last name, but I don't recall the name or if he or she was a NASA employee. "Sidney Markowitz" claimed in a 2009 blog post (retained on archive.org) to be the originator. My vague recollection is that "Markowitz" was not the name given in the magazine article, but I can't say for sure. Markowitz refers to a Wired magazine interview in which "Richard Soley" attributes the quote to "a friend". According to Markowitz, Markowitz worked for a company that partnered with a company founded by Soley, but it's not clear Soley and Markowitz ever met. "Soley's friend" sounds something like what I remember from that magazine of the '80s, but I don't think the magazine was "Wired", which didn't publish until 1993. Soley's company worked with Intel 286 and 386 PCs, developed in the early 1980s, so the timing is right. I am always wary of self-proclaimed brilliance on the Internet, and even Markowitz admits the quote evolved with colleagues from a debugging reference into a general software reference. Still, it appears Sidney was in the right place at the right time.