Skybridge: The Found and the Conquered: May 2012

There's really no reason to be worried about not updating this too often, as I'm sure you only check to see if I've updated it once or twice a year maybe. Probably less now because I update it less now. This post marks me at 58% complete on the 101 goals, and only 136 days remaining. My odds are not too good for completing the entire list, so I might have to hedge some of the goals, or declare them prematurely. That, or I need to get my butt in gear this summer.

The last two quarters at Stanford have been exciting, but also challenging. I'm facing a lot that I never have before, and I'm not just talking about schoolwork. It's been an intense few months that has left me in a new place that I'm trying to navigate, but the waters are unknown, and there's a hidden reef. I've been on this trajectory for too long, believing these days would come but not preparing for them. Now it's as if the I've been duped, tricked by my own thinking into thinking I was unflappable, that I could prevail.

The trick there is that I can prevail on this course, but this was never intended to be permanent. I've enjoyed the scenic route, but now I'm afraid I'm lost; too far off the map to make it to my destination in time. They say the journey is half the fun, or something like that, but that means there's still another whole half out there when you get to wherever you're going. No matter how much fun you've had so far.

With that, I guess I'll talk about some fun I've had so far...

Goal 38: Replace Something in my diet with Something Healthy and Natural

I admit right now that I haven't totally replaced anything in my diet, but I've gotten pretty close. Over winter break I had a conversation with Annie and Matthew about the morality of eating meat. Annie has been a vegetarian for 11 years or something impressive like that. Matthew thinks that animals were made to be eaten. The argument was put forth that if you can survive without taking a life, then you should... and I guess that made a lot of sense to me.

Now, I haven't fully replaced meat with not-meat, because most of the food I eat is acquired at group meetings and events. But what I have replaced is purchased meat. Meaning simply that I don't buy meat, and I always opt out of meat if asked before hand (to affect ordering). I go this route because I think my impact on eating a scoop of meat-food at an event is magnitudes less than if I directly buy it. I guess I'm just justifying myself though.

Goal 27: Make my Product Design Portfolio

For finding a summer job I created my portfolio. Feel free to take a look and tell me what you think. I like it, but I know it needs improvements. I got feedback from one place I really wanted to work at this summer that it was 'too busy.' So I guess I'll be revamping it next summer.

Download it here.

Goal 58: Gain and Keep Three Industry Contacts from Different Companies

I guess I could go into a bit here, but I don't really want to. Patricia is a contact from Walt Disney World that I took a course from called "Creativity and Innovation: Gaining the Edge." It was a really cool course, and I've been in contact with her ever since, seeing her every time I return to Florida. Jason is a contact from Sandia National Labs who is an extremely smart guy, and was my manager while I worked there. I loved him, and for some reason he loved me too. I was really sad to leave Sandia for Disney last summer just because of him. Adam is part of top management at SAP, and I met him through my tablet project at Stanford. I almost accepted a job from him at SAP for this summer, but decided not to because I had already accepted another offer. I will be keeping in touch with him about future opportunities and connections. Done.

Goal 75: Visit Disneyland Hong Kong

So this is exciting, yeah!? Yeah. Because of my design project with SAP and Stanford for ME310, I was flown to China. I booked my flight a week early so that I could spend some travel time seeing the country before it became business time for the project. I went to Beijing, Hong Kong, Guanzhou, Shanghai, and Hefei. It was lovely.

I spent three days in Hong Kong, which is certainly my favorite city in China so far. One of those days was at Disneyland with Annika.

Look at that. It was really hard to take in. It was so similar to the Disney I know, but then it was also quite different. Fewer coasters, slightly different rides, and a different feeling in general. It's strange going when it's not busy also. The parade was to be expected.