Thank you, Syria

I wanted to celebrate my birthday today by taking a picture with my friend Dr. Mufaddal Hamadeh, and this picture is a celebration of friendship, in honor of all people of Syrian descent, as well as my friends, colleagues, acquaintances and my students at Benedictine University from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Somalia.

The picture does show evidence of me being a geek, including a hint of a Dr. Who scarf knit by my mother, and one of my favorite t-shirts, from ThinkGeek, of the symbol "PI" made up of little numbers. And one of my early influences on being a geek was growing up using an Apple IIe computer.

Apple was co-founded by two of my heroes, Steve Wozniak, and Steve Jobs, and I particularly appreciate the fact that Steve Jobs is of Syrian descent. Thank you, Syria.