Honestly, from a very young age, before I had the language, really - anywhere that I encountered binary, whether it was in clothing or in toys or in media, it always made me uncomfortable.
We have international standards regulating everything from t-shirts to toys to tomatoes. There are international regulations for furniture. That means there are common standards for the global trade in armchairs but not the global trade in arms.
The first 'Star Wars' movie had come out in 1977 and had become this huge phenomenon with all the toys and everything - it just kind of swept America. But internationally, it was also a big deal.
I have a real weakness for Generation One Transformers. Only Generation One. I loved them as a kid, and I will, when I have the money, search occasionally for the toys that I could not afford but deeply desired as a child.
As a peace activist, I am dismayed by the encouragement of aggressiveness and violence by television, movies, and war toys.
I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.
I respect country music because I feel like it's more about the talent and the songwriting and I put on a big show and we have a lot of stuff, but I feel confident in myself enough as an artist and a singer that I can have all of those fun toys and know that we don't need all the bells and whistles either.
If the air quality is terrible in Los Angeles, if a particular university is unusually expensive, if crime is on the rise in Dallas, or if a company has a lot of recalled toys, transparency can spur change. Whenever public or private institutions have to answer to the public, their performance is likely to improve.
We're just into toys, whether it's motorcycles or race cars or computers. I've got the Palm Pilot right here with me, I've got the world's smallest phone. Maybe it's just because I'm still a big little kid and I just love toys, you know?
The most common characteristic of childhood building toys is that they snap together in one way or another. Technology is constantly shifting, and we should make sure that whatever we build is interoperable and pliable.
