It was her face that communicated, “Look you old fart I don’t have time for all this yack-yack; tell me what to do. Let’s end this tedious conversation as soon as possible. I have a life. I do not want to prolong the veneer of pretending to share a part of mine with you.” The woman had a pseudo smile that was neither friendly nor inviting. Somehow I have crossed over into the undesirable zone. I was explaining a concept to a person approximately 30 years younger than myself. I looked at her face. The woman was more than bored, she was pissed.

I have been known to drift to sleep with my media player filled with episodes of science and speculative fiction podcasts. I do confess that in between the twilight and the snoozing I’m picky about what I put into my brain. You’d think I’d seek out boring speakers to help me sleep but my mind does not like the idea of forced ennui.

Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education is getting a lot of attention from the White House and from private industry. As a non-parent, I really do have a stake STEM education. On the surface it seems like a good idea to invest $250 million dollars, since most of it is coming from Intel. Why should I care? The most basic reason? My own safety and survival.

A video has been traveling around since June 2009. It moves from ear to brain to eyes and then passed along to the next person. I’ve seen all kinds of words to describe it from “Wait, no you really should see this.” to “My soul has been kissed.” There are lessons in science, music, community, shared knowledge and perhaps just a little fun.

A resolution is a solution to a problem. Some of us have been making resolutions to the same goals and problems going on five or more years. I say chuck it. How about instead we start thinking about developing and enhancing the life skills we need to invoke the change? The Age of Verification Our informational life needs are a changing. For example, think about what we talked about and debated in 2009. Issues such as health care, the federal budget, large scale fraud and free enterprise versus social responsibilities.