James Allen Willis

This review was originally posted on Nov. 30, 2008 on a different blog (no longer maintained). I’m re-running it here because I think this is an important movie. It is now out on DVD. I encourage you to rent it and watch it. Powerful. This is not an easy review to write. Not because I [...]

A quick post to let you know that I will be presenting at the Montrose Christian Writer’s Conference from July 25-30, 2010. The conference is held at the Montrose Bible Conference in beautiful Montrose, Pennsylvania, about a half hour from Binghamton, NY. The tuition is a very reasonable $165 for the week (sans meals). I’ll [...]

Who can say for sure what events and experiences in life set a person on the path they eventually take? Many things affect an individual’s choices—the family and socioeconomic circumstances into which one is born, geography, natural talent and even technology. For those who call themselves “writers” or “authors” or “journalists,” do you have a [...]

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right is a new book with a fresh view on on the lowly checklist–its practicality and usefulness for not only routine tasks, but also for highly complex situations like building skyscapers and operating on people. Written by Boston surgeon Dr. Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto takes us on [...]

Before departing on a recent business trip to London, I purchased an Amazon Kindle 2 (Global version) ebook reader for the trip. The trip was my shameless justification for buying. You see, I’m a hopelessly, forever-comitted reading addict. I’ve been a regular reader since my youth, and my reading habit seems to have progressed from [...]

We’re facing the first snow of the season today. According to the wizards of the weather, if you live above 1500 feet elevation, you may get anywhere from 3 to 7 inches of snow! Which got me to wondering, not for the first time, “How can I find the elevation of our home?” We moved [...]

Below is the text of my eulogy given yesterday at the memorial service for William Andrew (Bill) Woishnis. It was nice to meet Bill’s extended family and hear about his early years. And it was also nice to hear from Bill’s friends outside of work, and for me personally to reconnect with my former colleagues [...]