skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I went to my final Self Expression and Leadership Program class on Thursday. This completes Landmark Education's "Curriculum for Living" series, but I am already registered for more!
I have gotten so much more out of my life since I took the Landmark Forum last December it is hard to know where to begin! Although I've always had fun and done cool things in life, I never really felt like I was in control or had any say in how things happened. I was a "passenger" for most of my life, just reacting to whatever was going on. Now I am the driver, creating my life and loving it all. Sure, there are still bumps on the road and detours along the way but now I don't get sidetracked by what is handed to me by life. I finally see how amazing people accomplish impossible things.
I've also developed a new way of looking at the world. Before the Forum, I didn't realize how cynical and judgemental I was about life. I really approached life as though everyone else was stupid and everything "happened to me" all the time. It worked great for a while, but I've come to see how limiting it is as well. The most surprising thing was to find out that other people knew I was an ass but didn't tell me! Talk about a blind spot; I had no idea I was an arrogant ass or that other people could see it. That alone was life-altering.
To make a long story short, I have gotten a lot out of my classes with Landmark:
- I have new tools to use in making my dreams into reality.
- I operate in 'today' instead of 'some day'.
- I see what happens in life separate from the meaning I give to the events.
- I don't get stopped when things don't go the way I thought they would or don't turn out like I want them to.
- I have an amazing relationship with my wife where we can discuss anything--litterally anything that ever comes up--at any time with no fear of 'cost' or retribution for bringing it up.
- I love with my whole heart. No holds barred. Nothing held back. And it is fantastic!
- I live life powerfully and live a life I love!
Yes, I do slip into my old habits at times. I see it and recognize it (mostly), but I am no longer trapped by the past and by those old comfortable habits. Now I am constantly surrounded by a conversation for what is possible in my life and what is possible for everyone around me. It is inspiring, motivating, exciting, and miraculous.
"This is your life, are you who you want to be?" ~Switchfoot, This is Your Life
We've had little Jack-a-roo over a month now and he is still sneezing up big snot wads and his eye has not opened up all the way. We were told it was a scratch and would go away on its own, but it's not. So we took Jack to the Aventura Animal Hospital (we only know about it because it's next to an Old Navy store).
The vet was amuzed at Jack's constant purring regardless of what they did to him (even when they gave him an anal probe to take his temperature!). She decided Jack has an upper respiratory infection that caused ulcers around his eye--and that's why it swelled up. We got 3 kinds of medicines and were told to come back in a few days.
Fast forward to today. Back at the vet, we find out that he isn't getting better so they are putting him on a fourth medication and upping the frequency of his doses! This wouldn't be so bad, but three of the medicines are anitbiotics that you squirt directly into his eye. If you have never put neosporin-looking stuff in a cat's eye, you are lucky. We now have to do it four times a day times three medicines: twelve times a day we poke the cat in the eye. I'd feel like a horrible parent, but he keeps purring!
The other med is some kind of supplement that comes in a delicious paste. You squirt it on the cat's paw and they lick it up. Simple! And much less dangerous that squirting tuff in it's eye or trying to get it to swallow a pill.
I have no idea why the cat loves us. All we've doe to him since we got him is do mean things like shove pills down his throat or squeeze medicine in his eye!
Side note: since we are going out of town for Brian and Leona's wedding this weekend, we are putting Jack into the "pet resort" at the animal hospital. This way he still gets all of his medications and Azriel gets a break from crazy Jack.
Howl at the Moon dueling piano bar reopened in Orlando this weekend. Jen and I drove up to Orlando on Friday night, had a good time dancing and singing and then drove back (Jen was DD). It was a lot of driving--and we had to wait in line to get in--but it was worth it! Brian Wilson & Leona, Timber, Paul & Susie, Matt Cross, and crazy Chris were there along with 'long-time, no-see' John Bartos with his wife Jennifer ("What a coincidence! I have a Jennifer too!"). Former intern Todd also showed up with his roommate. All had a wonderful time! Can't wait to go back next weekend after Brian & Leona's wedding!
I sent in an article about the reaction of the Space Generation community to NASA's new plans for returning to the moon to Ad Astra Online and it was published! See the whole thing on SPACE.com at http://www.space.com/adastra/050920_genx.html.
How exciting! I have never been on the front page of a publication before! Time to update the ol' resume.
Here's all the news that's fit to print (and then some):
My weekend started on Friday afternoon when I was unexpectedly called in to help load the airplane. This was unexpected and a bit disappointing as Jen's mom was in town, Sniper was on his way down, and I had planned to go out with George and Loretta. Ultimately it turned into a great training experience for Sarah as we had mechanics that hadn't done the load before. We really had to know our stuff to be able to tell them what to do, how to do it, and when it needed to be done. Steven Steiner also made it down to help, despite having his flight from Boston delayed several hours.
Getting home at 5:30am on Saturday, I was greeted by Jen and her mom heading out the door to prepare for our two ZERO-G flights. I managed to get a few hours sleep before heading out the door for a meeting with a local college professor. We toured the airplane and were drawn into the final cleaning and preparation that hadn't been completed the night before. We left the airplane as the passengers arrived. They included: Snoopy, Ball State University, Jen's mom, and Sniper! I went back with Jen to the Hard Rock to prepare for ZG-46, where I was the Gold Team coach. My team was fun and I finally got to do a Superman!! Wa-hoo!
After the Regravitation Party we all went to Buca di Beppo for Jen's birthday dinner.
We ate her icecream cake from Cold Stone Creamery and feasted on wonderful Italian food. Then we talked in the parking lot for a log time and the cake melted. Tragic, but true!
The next day, Jen and Alice and Sniper and I all went to Joe Picasso's and painted pottery. It was so much fun that I stayed for four hours working on my little statue.
Then we went out to eat at the Melting Pot fondue restaurant. None of us had ever eaten fondue before so it was a neat experience! We had melted cheese, cooked meat in boiling broth stuff, and then had the most wonderful chocolate ever. Jen picked a good place to eat for her fancy-pants birthday dinner.
Now we are at home recovering from a wild flight and birthday weekend--and here comes another hurricane! Rita is bearing down on us sending palm fronds flying and weather reporters out to the most dangerous spots they can find. Once again, I am sure we will survive.
Tonight is the season premiere of NBC's weight-loss show, The Biggest Loser. We flew for them out in Van Nuy's California back in March. The contestants had to float around gathering up ping-pong balls and stuffing them into a bag on their belt. The catch: some of these people were over 400 pounds!
Jen and I were both working on that flight and ened up on camera for a lot of the show. We were in the front of the aircraft keeping the contestants from hitting the front wall or going through the forward doorway that leads to the cockpit. Jen is on camera a lot! Everyone recognizes her and says "oh, was that you on the other side?" I am so happy we were on tv together!!
Sarah and I spent the whole weekend--50 hours over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday--working at the aircraft repair station in Miami. We were overseeing the installation of power panels in the aircraft to support research flights. This is a critical step in being able to support NASA flights and other research activities. It will also come in handy when we do media and filming flights (previously, everything had to be batterypowered--ugh!)
As usual, we got very little sleep while we were in Miami. No, not because we were partying! We need to be on-site from the time the first mechanics arrive at 7 am until the paperwork is completed at 12 am or later.
This was the first time Sarah had worked at a repair station without Robert. She did a fantastic job! We ended up getting all of the work on the aircraft done but still have some more removable pieces to finish up that are needed to make it all work. Overall: Mission Accomplished!!
No kidding, a squirrel knocked at the front door at the office today. There are some cats that roam the office park so I assume it was one of them making the noise. You can imagine my surprise when I see a squirrel banging its fists on the door!
I tried to take a picture of it, but it vanished. Literally. I ran out to find it but it was gone. Weirdest thing that happened all day.
Our good friend Shannon came to town to hang out with us over Labor Day weekend. Hooray! It was awesome to get to see her again. The last time we got together was at our wedding in April (Shannon was the Maid of Honor).
We started out Sunday at the Beach Place (on the beach!) where we ate at Lulu's Baitshack. They had red beans and rice with andouille sausage!! It's my favorite cajun food. MMMM!
We rode on the Water Taxi for only $5 and got a great tour of the big houses on the intercoastal waterway. There are some monsterously huge houses with equally gargantuan yachts out there. The guide said some people pay over $20,000 per month in property taxes. That is insane!
We got off the taxi at River Walk, but we had just eaten so we walked down to the art festival on Las Olas Boulevard. The streets were closed to traffic so the vendors could set up tents in the road. It was...interesting. The art was neat, but the people were fascinating! There was a couple bicycling through that really caught our attention: the guy was wearing boxer breifs and shoes. That's it. Oh, and a fanny pack--where else would he keep his wallet? We figured they were foreign--it's just not socially acceptable in most of the U.S. to ride around in your underwear.
Other notable events were:
- dinner at the Cheesecake Factory
- the extremely-ethnic food court at the fancy-pants Aventura Mall
- a huge sale at Macy's/Burdines
- Scatergories ("items in a desk" starting with a k??)
- walking to the Cold Stone Creamery to burn off the calories from the delicious icecream
On Tuesday morning, Shannon went back to Kentucky to her huge cat Leo. Thanks for coming! Come see us again soon!!
After some debate with our airline "partner", we finally got the go-ahead to do flights for the rest of the year. This is very good as we have 15+ flights already on the books for the next four months!
Basically they thought our modifictions were causing problems. After a careful, independant engineering analysis, however, it turned out that their own people were screwing things up. To 'solve' the problem we are putting on cute "touch this switch and DIE" placards for now and planning to add a pressure-relief valve later. Hopefully this will mean that even when the mechanics break all the rules and procedures they still can't do much harm.
We are fixing a system that isn't broken. But if it gets us flying--we'll do it!
Side note: I read today that SpaceX was modeling their operation after an airline. Please, please don't pick Amerijet as your model, Elon!!
Oh, and Jack taught me how to do cool animations in ImageReady so I can make pictures do funny things. This could be fun ;-)
