When I submitted my college textbook, "Trustworthy Computing" in 2005, and newly, the "Cyber-Risk Informatics" in 2014, Wiley editor asked me both times what was so special about my book proposals. Rather, what were they doing that others were not accomplishing, or what void did the book fill? I recall I made my points quite fully, not only explaining but also supporting with statistical findings and website charts to justify the need for a new book-to-be, which was not currently available in the literature. I will now ask myself the same question about how this book is different. I may say that the book will be about a foreign scholar's storytelling while strolling the globe about what hardships and challenges he went through, and during which stages of his life; how he contributed to the life immediately around him or far away from and in the United States of America? All contained in the book will be speaking the plain truth, by recounting memoirs, nothing more or nothing less and no fiction and all facts. However, the interpretation of these facts will be left to the readers' judgments. While writing her legendary book, 'To Kill a Mocking Bird', which was not at all easy, the late Harper Lee went through a lot of difficult and unnerving periods to conclude her book in the way that she wanted to craft it to perfection, therefore leading to a timeless document for ages to come. One day while being assisted in New York City by seasoned coaches such as Truman Capote, also hailing from the Deep South; Lee angrily tossed her almost finished manuscript out of the window into the snow laden street; the only copy those days when electronic copying was non-existent. Luckily, waking up from a nightmare, she retrieved it safely. I had moments like this especially toward the end of this book-writing by questioning myself. "Why are you writing this?" But then, maybe someone else may see even a distant need to associate with yours to reminisce their slice of life; why not? Also if a Martian(!) visited the earth and wanted to read a typical world citizen's life story to see what challenges the earthlings on the average suffer through, and concurrently learn about the distant past and the near future of this planet, he or she could select my book, why not! I liken this book to a planetarium. You observe plenty distinct, glittering and blinking stars (memoirs) but yet coherent through cosmos (an interconnecting theme), not chaos or deluge. My North-star, however, is the plain truth, and my Sun is the power of knowledge. I used to read in 1990s, how-to-write books, one of which was titled "Anybody Can Write" by R. Jean Bryant (who wrote: "There is no magic! Dreamers dream, writers write...") all pleasantly advised everyone to pour your excitement and enthusiasm relentlessly without looking back and full of adrenaline, alive onto the dead papyrus, nowadays replaced by a flat non-living computer flat screen. I can only hope that it brings nothing but fun and knowledge and experience that you come to find out through other folks' lives. This book in a way is something similar to that tradition of carrying on friendly talks with my readers about the world and North America from a dual citizen's perspective with a genuine heart and a candid smile, and a positive attitude, in the least. I believe that every book created after an incubation period in human mind is as vivid and influential as the human beings who create them. That is why a book becomes a person's best friend. It lives even a longer life than humans if books influence, foretell, guide and inspire positively. We have runic or cuneiform-inscribed tablet books from 5000 B.C. and 1000 year-old printed books, priceless and still influential. This book will borrow your leisure time to inspire you to spontaneously enjoy it. As God whispered to his subjects before God released them, "We agree to disagree." Let's set sail for life's soul-ports. Visit less your Mall, more yo
About the Author: Dr. M. Sahinoglu, Professor-Dean Emeritus from DEU (Izmir) & METU (Ankara)Turkey (1990 and 2000 resp.) and formerly the Distinguished Professor of AUM (2008) was the founder and the Director of the Informatics Institute (2009) and its SACS-accredited (2010) and NSA (National Security Agency) certified (2013) Cybersystems and Information Security (CSIS) graduate program Earlier, the founder Dean of Arts and Sciences, and founder Chair of the Department of Computational Stat. at DEU/Izmir (1992-97), and the visiting Fulbright and NATO Scholar at Purdue (1989-90, 1997-98) and Case Western Reserve University (1998-99), and the Eminent Scholar and Computer Science Department's Chair-Professor at the Troy University Montgomery campus (1999-08); Dr. Sahinoglu has a BSEE from METU/Ankara (1973), MSEE from University of Manchester (1975), and PhD in ECE and Statistics from Texas A&M University (1981). Dr. Sahinoglu taught at Texas A&M (1978-81), METU/Ankara (1982-1992) and DEU/Izmir (1992-97), Purdue (1998-99, 1997-98), CWRU (1998-99), Troy University at Montgomery (1999-2008), and AUM (2008-). The recipient of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Curriculum (TCC) award as one of 14 in the world (2006) and a Fellow Member of SDPS, a recipient of its "Software Engineering Society Excellence in Leadership" award. and a Senior Member of IEEE and Elected Member of ISI. He is the 2015 and 2016 Silver Medalist of the DAU competition. Dr. Sahinoglu is the author of the textbooks titled, Trustworthy Computing (2007) and "Cyber-Risk Informatics" (2016) by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. with more than 60 journal and 150 peer-reviewed proceedings articles and 20 project grants since 1982. He independently co-created "Sahinoglu & Libby Probability Distribution (1981)" with Dr. Libby; derived "Compound Poisson Software Reliability Model & Stopping Rule in Software Testing" in hardware and software reliability domains, and most recently, "Security Meter Quantitative Risk Assessment and Management" algorithms and "CLOURAM (Cloud Risk Assessor-Manager)". He authored four memoirs-based social style books: Wrist-Fight of the Giants: Japan & USA (1992), Made In China/Made in Japan (1993), From Akhisar to America (2004) all three in Turkish, and this one "Raindrops Falling on Life's Umbrella" (2017) in English. He has worked in international symposiums as a simultaneous interpreter between English and Turkish while conversational in German, Italian and French. The author retired in 2018.