June 2007

So this is what I found:

“The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we appear to be.”
-Socrates

“He who cannot change teh very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.”
-Anwar Sadat

“Character building begins in infancy and ends in death.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt

“It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.”
-Elbert Hubbard

“He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.”
-Menander of Athens

“The best way out is always through.”
-Robert Frost

“The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.”
-Robert Green Ingersoll

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier - not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability has increased.”
-Emerson

“It is what a min thinks of himself that really determines his fate.”
-Henry David Thoreau

“Positive anything is better than negative nothing.”
-Elbert Hubbard

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Originally uploaded by hypermodern

My family takes a summer break at Johnie’s Italian ice.

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Originally uploaded by hypermodern

Hooray I got Italian ice!

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Right behind home plate.

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Hooray! A summer night at Wrigley…Just like when I was a kid! Thanks for the ticket Pell!

I got this little message at the top of my Gmail today…

“Recycling a 3-foot-high stack of newspapers can save one whole tree.”

It really puts things in perspective…

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Originally uploaded by hypermodern

Cat grave stones on sale! Invest in your feline’s future…

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Originally uploaded by hypermodern

Butterfly on plants at Wal-Mart

“If it is to be, it’s up to me.”

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Originally uploaded by hypermodern

Listening to Bethoven in Millenium Park…

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Originally uploaded by hypermodern

I have never seen this flower before…

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Originally uploaded by hypermodern

Hello from the Golden West Invitational…

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The newest member of team Sting Poomps…

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On the way to Sacramento

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Originally uploaded by hypermodern

Hooray for sunny days!

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Oh meat….

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Originally uploaded by hypermodern

The regal Presidio chahuahua…

As I sit here, sipping freshly brewed green tea, in my red sweat suit, tapping away at my 12″ Powerbook in my kitchen listening to birds with the sun pouring in, I am reminded of the goals I set for myself as a freshmen in college…

Granted at the time I made those assertions it was before I had been to Cali (the spring of 1999) and before I made the leap to study art, I was just finishing out my freshmen year and was applying to the Dual Degree program…

What’s important though is that I uttered these goals thereby affirming them into my consciousness… to others, they are equally poignant…Recently I’ve reconnected with a fellow freshmen from Dickson Hall who despite the almost 10 years since has written me a note recounting how I’m now close to my dream to “Live in California, someplace with a view, with a laptop, in boxers, and design roller coasters.”

So now it’s a reality…I’m living the life I’ve imagined and it’s great.

**update** July 12, 2007. I found a scholarship essay dated 1997 when I was at home sorting through papers from college…Topic: “What do you see yourself doing in 20 years?”

Earth’s colony on Mars is truly amazing, but it’s strange to think that I helped design it over ten years ago. After graduating from Cornell University with honors in the College Scholar Program in 2000, high jumping throughout Europe while participating in their Gran Prix Track Circuit for 4 years, taking part in the Olympics in Athens in 2004, and getting my Masters degree at UC Berkeley in Ergonomics in design in 2008, I had a wonderful opportunity to help NASA design the space station that so many people call home.

One beautiful afternoon in San Francisco I was working on my laptop on the sun porch, and I got a call from my old professor. He recommended me for the job of designing a habitable space station on Mars. I jumped right into the project, and with the new autoCAD technology I was able to completely design the station from my home. I was on site for the construction of the immaculate structure, and continued to use my skills to troubleshoot when the workers had problems building on the Martian terrain.

Now our colony has grown to nearly 2 million people, and our production of metal ore is in such demand we are a thriving metropolis rivaling New York and Chicago. Occasionally I travel back to Earth to see my old stomping ground, but up here we are always developing new ways of doing things, because on Mars, much like the high jump, the sky is the limit.

I even got the cities right…