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<\/p>\nBesides being one of the best David Bowie songs ever, it’s what we did last night, said hallo to the spaceboy Richard Garriot.\u00a0 We headed to the imax theatre downtown for a night of all things astronaut-y.\u00a0 First, we watched a 3-d movie filmed shortly before he went up to the space station.<\/p>\n
Wow.\u00a0 Just wow.<\/p>\n
I spent the whole movie feeling like I was 10 years old, alternating between my mouth being agape, and a shit-eating grin on my face.\u00a0 Zliten is a space nut, we used to fall asleep watching the Nasa channel in San Diego, any space documentary, he’d just be glued to it.\u00a0 Of course, I think space is cool as hell and I’d love if in my lifetime there was commercial flights to the moon.\u00a0 But seeing it in 3-d (and wow, 3-d has gotten better since I was a kid) was just… awe inspiring.\u00a0 Words just cannot describe how cool that was, so I’ll just stop babbling about it.<\/p>\n
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Then, Richard gave a presentation on his background, his involvement in the privatization of space travel, and his experience training for and going up to the space station.\u00a0 I knew his father was a cosmonaut, I knew he invested in it, but I didn’t know he was one of the founders of the x prize, and I didn’t know how dedicated he had been to wanting to be an astronaut all his life.\u00a0 I knew a lot about his video game history, but it was pretty cool to hear more about the space part of his life.\u00a0 Ya know.\u00a0 Someone I’ve met.\u00a0 Someone Zliten has actually worked with.\u00a0 Someone that I’ve done a dive off his second floor balcony jump spot into his pool at a party has also gone into space.\u00a0 Somehow, the millions he’s made in video games didn’t really starstrike me the way this did.<\/p>\n
I guess what I could take away from this is – if this guy had the dream of going into space, and found out that he couldn’t do it in the capacity that many could because of his eyesight, he just kept trying to create another way.\u00a0 He could have just been accepting of his fate, but he wasn’t.\u00a0 Someone closed a door, he just kept knocking on all the rest of them.\u00a0 Sure, he came from a cosmonaut-artist-scientist family, but he’s obviously not just a trust fund kid.\u00a0 He was making a company in his parents basement in college selling his video game in college when I was getting myself into debt drinking and partying.<\/p>\n
I sometimes – not regret because I love where I’ve ended up – but wonder where I would have ended up if I would have taken some different roads.\u00a0 I could have gotten into some really good schools with my grades and scores, but I couldn’t decide where to go so I just stayed in town and went to the state school in Reno.\u00a0 I could have continued on with gymnastics and seen where it took me, same with diving – I was actually offered a small diving scholarship and spot on a college team which I turned down for various reasons.\u00a0 I wonder what would have happened if I would have stayed on with SOE and in San Diego (just a little, that’s one decision I’m pretty sure I made correctly just for health reasons).\u00a0 If only I had a “what if” machine…<\/p>\n
However, it really hit home last night that a lot of doors I’ve always thought were closed to me at the ripe old age of 29 – well, they’re only because I think they are.\u00a0 I’m probably not going to try to take up gymnastics again pushing 30, but nothing is stopping me heading to a pool and getting back on the diving board.\u00a0 Maybe I could even be the one to start an adult diving league here in Austin.\u00a0 Same with all the other fun\/active things I used to do before I left college, became a sedentary blob, and packed on weight.<\/p>\n
It’s a really good feeling to be going into my 30’s (my birthday is March 3rd by the way) lighter and fitter than at any other time in my life since I quit gymnastics.\u00a0 I actually think I might be stronger in different areas, I surely have never been able to run 5+ miles before in my life.\u00a0 As my resolutions definitely enforce, I just need to figure out what I’m going to tackle, and focus!<\/p>\n
And hey, maybe one day I’ll go to space too.\u00a0 I hear that you lose weight up there.\u00a0 Bonus!<\/p>\n