I would like to thank the great Oogimauskii for nudging me to write to you once again about Perceptual Reality, one of my favorite topics, and an extremely important one. The cognoscenti of the Magical Worlds Workshop will remember a brief discussion of Perceptual Reality at the beginning of class.  “Each of you will sit in this […]

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“Paris. April. Twilight. A few flat clouds folded themselves like crepes over fillings of apricot sky. Pompadours of supper-time smoke billowed from chimneys, separating into girlish pigtails as the breeze combed them out, above the slate rooftops. Chestnut blossoms, weary from having been admired all day, wore faint smiles of anticipation with the approach of […]

  Luis Castañeda is a Wizard of Ads Digital Marketing Specialist, expert in B2B, Google ads, and Web Analytics. You REALLY want to read what he posted on the Wizard of Ads partner blog this week. – Indy Beagle

“Google laid off 12,000 employees. Then they bought back $70B in stock. And then they gave Sundar Pichai a big raise that raised his total compensation to $226M. And now Google is discovering that their employees are upset.” – Craig Andrews, April 5, 2023 NOTE: Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, receives a $2 million […]

The wizard texted the most knowledgeable tech-scientists within his circle of friends. “I’m quoting a few people in the rabbit hole on Monday. I’d like you to be one of them: What is your read on this internal Google memo? 1: is it real, or propaganda? 2: What are the implications?” These are a few […]

The mortality rate for young men in society is six times what it is for young women, from violence and from accidents, just the stupid stuff that young men do; jumping off of things they shouldn’t jump off of, lighting things on fire they shouldn’t light on fire, I mean, you know what I’m talking […]

March 7, 2023 – Facebook’s large language model, which is usually only available to approved researchers, government officials, or members of civil society, has now leaked online for anyone to download. The leaked language model was shared on 4chan, where a member uploaded a torrent file for Facebook’s tool, known as LLaMa (Large Language Model […]

When Victoria Pelletier sets her mind to achieving a goal, she won’t let anything or anyone stop her. Nor will she blame anyone but herself when things don’t go the way she planned. Those two personality traits — being unstoppable and making no excuses — have been a recipe for success since she became the […]

ChatGPT In the land of Brushenstroken, a tale began, Of a Doodlefumbler, a failed painter man. Splotzwhifferführer, his name was known, He sought to make all of Europe his own. Tired of being mocked for his colors so poor, He devised a plan to rule and to roar. With a wave of his brush, enchanted […]

Wizard of Ads, Inc. has sponsored the wiener dog races in Buda, Texas, for more than 20 years. Wiener dogs were built for racing, don’t you think? – Indy Beagle

I’m floored. I’ve been working with ChatGPT, and tonight I figured out how to make it act like an AI chatbot that applies DaVinci’s 40 answers to whatever problem I present it with. It gives me 5 ideas per TRIZ principle, and tells me which one it thinks is the best. It’s like having a […]

“This sentence is made of lead (and a sentence of lead gives a reader an entirely different sensation from one made of magnesium). This sentence is made of yak wool. This sentence is made of sunlight and plums. This sentence is made of ice. This sentence is made from the blood of the poet. This […]

“All powerful messages must contain an element of absurdity, illogicality, costliness, disproportion, inefficiency, scarcity, difficulty or extravagance.” – Rory Sutherland

You see a photo of a man in a blue jacket standing in front of McDonalds. That photo contains at least 3 pieces of information. Information is content. 1. Man2. Blue Jacket3. McDonalds Content without context is boring. The reason that photograph was taken was to encourage you and elevate your hope. Does that surprise […]

We have also started an e-mail exchange with an NGO out of Australia called Classrooms of Hope. They have built 5 schools on the island of Lombok using a new technology called Eco Bricks. They are bricks made of plastic waste. Classrooms of Hope has opened a new factory to produce these bricks in Lombok […]

Dear Roy and Pennie,This is the current status of the school land you helped us to buy: we are still waiting for the land certificate to be issued by the government but after almost two years of waiting we found a lawyer who has helped us draw up some paperwork that will help us plead […]

Dave Combs is a disarmingly charming southerner and a man of faith. He’s also one of the most successful musicians and music distributors in America today. Dave and studio pianist Gary Prim recorded their first song in 1986, and the duo has since produced 15 successful instrumental albums which have attracted millions of worldwide fans. […]

Clay Stafford produces an annual conference that brings together authors, agents, exhibitors, and fans of crime and thriller literature. And he’s been doing it for 17 years. To pull off a large meeting, workshop, or other live event in the post-COVID-19 era requires countless steps in planning for the next conference, beginning a year in […]

“During Tuesday’s webinar, ‘A Conversation on Being African-American in the Nashville Music Industry,’ you made a passing reference to something I’d wondered about — the 1960 book Black Like Me and film adaptation that tell the story of a white man trying to learn about black suffering in the South by passing as black. What […]

  Your Main Man Manley Miller of New Orleans and the Zacmaster of Wizard Academy Online show off their cabernet corkstamps at one of their favorite restaurants.

Zac Smith couldn’t drive when his parents piloted the family car nearly 2,000 miles so that he could walk around in the wilderness that would become the Wizard Academy campus. This is Zac signing the Founder’s Document, 19 years ago. Today Zac is Vice-Chancellor of Wizard Academy Online. People occasionally ask Roy if he writes […]

David C. Tate teaches psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and he has created a new type of leadership that gives every employee, regardless of rank, the opportunity to be heard, and to contribute to the success of the company.  David says that in today’s business world, how you succeed is often as important […]

Dave Young in 2004, standing in the barn that occupied the exact footprint of today’s Tuscan Hall on the campus of Wizard Academy. Today, Dave is the on-campus Vice-Chancellor, the person responsible for making sure all the behind-the-scenes miracles are happening just as they should.

‘The Holy Church of Christ Without Christ’ is well-written and interesting. But in the end, Antonio García Martínez proved that he was doing exactly what he was mocking: “Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder ‘why, why, why?’ Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got […]

She Did Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night A few close friends are dealing with hard family issues right now – all health related. Watching them cope made me remember the last time my late Grandma visited our house. I was 15. We were living in a small town just south of Austin. Everyone knew […]

Khierstyn Ross has an odd goal: she says, “We actually want our clients to fire us.” Khierstyn isn’t crazy. Her mission is to help launch and scale online brands until they achieve $3 million in annual sales and she’s already done that for many clients. By the time her clients’ grow to $10 million in […]

Greetings,I just read the Memo for 4-3-2023 and  I have a question/request. As you know, the Memo quotes Orson Welles as follows: “I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get […]

Five-year-old Wesley has begun arbitrarily assigning Rabbit-points to family members for doing things that please him. I myself received two Rabbit-points this morning for making him toaster-waffles for breakfast. Anyhoo, as soon as eight-year-old Oliver found out, he’s been waiting on his younger brother hand and foot. I’m enjoying the show. Oliver is amassing Rabbit-points. […]

“The best craftsman always leaves holes and gaps in the works of the poem so that something that is not in the poem can creep, crawl, flash, or thunder in.” – Dylan Thomas

Bradley Hamner brings freedom to executives who are slaves-to-their-companies and turns them into architects of growth and success. His motto is Dux, te ipsum duc, “Leader, Lead Thyself.” Bradley launched his his first business in 2009, with no customers, no leads, and very little cash. He has gone on to build seven companies, with an […]

Mork: Mork calling Orson. Come in, Orson.            Mork calling Orson. Come in, Orson.            Mork calling Orson. Mork calling Orson.              Everything all right, Orson?   Orson:  Yes. This better be good, Mork. You got me out of the shower.   Mork: […]

Meriem Derradji couldn’t help but feel a twinge of betrayal when she discovered that one of her favorite actresses on “Euphoria” was not the self-made up-and-comer she thought her to be. “She seemed like a regular girl,” said Ms. Derradji, 24, who works in technical support in Montreal. Except for one thing: Her parents, Leslie Mann and Judd […]

Jennifer Brown sizes up business on how well they address today’s ever-increasing demand for inclusive workplaces. Are you (1.) unaware, (2.) aware, (3.) active, or (4.) an advocate? Do you want to create a productive work environment for every employee? Google, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Disney, and Coca-Cola have all asked for her help, but […]

Thank you to the great Craig Arthur of Townsville, Australia, for sending us this photo.

“Bea says that the art of reading is slowly dying, that it’s an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day.” – […]

“Julian once told me that a story is a letter the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.” – Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind, p. 444

“This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its […]

“Television, my dear Daniel, is the Antichrist, and I can assure you that after only three or four generations, people will no longer even know how to fart on their own and humans will return to living in caves, to medieval savagery, and to the general state of imbecility that slugs overcame back in the […]

“As I walked through the tunnels and tunnels of books, I could not help being overcome by a sense of sadness. I couldn’t help thinking that if I, by pure chance, had found a whole universe in a single unknown book, buried in that endless necropolis, tens of thousands more would remain unexplored, forgotten forever. […]

“As for the Aldaya mansion, it is still there, against all predictions. In the end, Mr. Aguilar’s estate agency managed to sell it. It was completely restored, and the statues of angels were churned down to gravel to cover the parking lot that takes up what was once the Aldaya’s garden. Today it houses an […]

If you didn’t graduate from Harvard Business School, making sense of today’s bank failures, debt ceilings, inflation, currency fluctuations, and trade deficits – can be daunting. Eric Johnson is an instrument-rated pilot, surfer, black belt, astrophotographer, angel investor, and former CEO of a software engineering firm. He has spent 15 years decoding the mysteries of […]

It is naive to believe the world is a meritocracy, but it is defeatist to believe that you can’t win. Six years ago, notacoward wrote, “Entrepreneurship is like one of those carnival games where you throw darts or something. Middle class kids can afford one throw. Most miss. A few hit the target and get […]

After a long period of indecision about what to do with the knowledge that his uncle has murdered his father, Hamlet returns to Denmark. He has survived a plot to have him murdered, has been rescued by pirates and is now home, ready to deal with the problem. In the meantime, his lover, Ophelia, has committed […]

“Television, my dear Daniel, is the Antichrist, and I can assure you that after only three or four generations, people will no longer even know how to fart on their own and humans will return to living in caves, to medieval savagery, and to the general state of imbecility that slugs overcame back in the […]

    ‘Girl With A Pearl Earring’ is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, dated c. 1665. Going by various names over the centuries, it became known by its present title towards the end of the 20th century after the earring worn by the girl portrayed there. – Wikipedia

1. “I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend, if you have one.”– George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill. 2. “Cannot possibly attend first night, I will attend the second; if there is one.”– Winston Churchill, in response. 3. “Sir, you will either die on the gallows, […]

When Joe Davis arrived on our doorstep in 2005, he just wanted to be anywhere but Tulsa. He did a marvelous job for us during the years that he helped build Chapel Dulcinea and the Wizard Academy campus. He went on to became a real estate agent and then a highly successful broker. After Daniel […]

As John toasts us farewell, I ask you to invest a few seconds to listen to a bit of a composition I asked John to write a few years ago, when his health began to fail. It is appropriately titled, “Hope.”

This is John with one of his four sons, Joe, in front of the little shack that served as the original Welcome Center for Wizard Academy. Joe came to Austin shortly after Pennie bought the land, so that he could help us build Chapel Dulcinea.

Eighteen years ago when we poured the slab for Chapel Dulcinea, Dr. John Davis was there with Jane Fraser, her brother Scott Fraser, and Steve from Australia. John was always there for the important moments.

John chatted with Michele Miller for awhile after grilling chicken for everyone. Michele is married to Ron Nelson, a famous composer. Michele enjoyed discussing music with John, a gifted piano improvisationalist.

When Wizard Academy was still trying to find its financial footing, John Davis grilled chicken for 120 students returning for an Academy Reunion. He even insisted on paying for the chicken.

Plato once observed, “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” Gene Sticco, an entrepreneur and U.S. Air Force special forces veteran, took the Greek philosopher’s words to heart when he launched his run for the 2024 presidency last month. Sticco’s campaign aligns […]

Jeffrey Eisenberg and Dewey Jenkins don’t know each other but each of them taught me the importance of removing the friction. Dewey sings it to every person in his company, “Make it easy for customers to do business with us.” And they do. Inventing new ways to “make it easier” is the job of every […]

With pen in hand and paper blank as snow,I ponder what to write, where to begin.My thoughts like leaves in autumn breeze do blow,And inspiration seems too far within.I rack my brain for something new and fresh,A tale untold or sentiment unique.But all my words feel trite, my rhymes too fleshed,And everything I try appears […]

Contact me and let me do something for you!I’m more affordable than you think.

Wizard Academy alumnus Matt Mason has some profound thoughts on Disneyland, midlife, and churros. Matt, who since 2019 has served as the official state poet of Nebraska, is hoping that those and other introspections he shares in his latest book of poetry will touch readers and help fuel his ambition to earn a living writing, […]

Calculating the Cost of Customer Acquisition When your advertising leans on the weak wooden crutch of discounting, it is only a matter of time before that crutch splinters and slowly pierces your heart. Discounting is a seductive drug like heroin, meth, and fentanyl. It rarely kills you quickly. It prefers to kill you slowly. Yes, […]

You have the passion, the talent, and the songs. What you need is visibility. CrowdedSongs.com gives you access to a searchable database that allows buyers to find you when they are lookingfor something new and different and remarkable. CrowdedSongs.com doesn’t pitch your songs to record labels and TV shows and bands looking for material. Those […]

    If you’re ready for your mind to be blown, read the full list of songs written by Jimmy Webb. This man is a songwriting hero, a major dude. We’ve popped in a few of his songs below, recorded by names and faces you will recognize. Yep. He wrote all of these and dozens […]

Everybody’s high on consolationEverybody’s trying to tell me what is right for me.My daddy tried to bore me with a sermonBut it’s plain to see that they can’t comfort me. Sorry, Charlie, for the impositionI think I got it, I got the strength to carry on.I need a drink and a quick decisionNow it’s up […]