What is with my 30s!!? I mean really! Someone up there just woke up and said "Today! Today I'm going to ruin a mans life! No no no ... I'm just going to make his life miserable!" Last weekend was a tough weekend for me. My grandfather passed away 2 years ago. I was torn up ... he was like a father to me. Last Sunday, my grandmother passed away. I didn't really know how to react ... my head was hurting ... my lungs felt like they couldn't hold any air. All weekend long I was in a daze. Not really concentrating on much and trying to occupy my mind on anything I could.
So I went riding with my boys! A great group of guys ... you can call them my "family away from my family". And they truly are! Kindred spirits with a commonality ... to enjoy life whether it be on motorcycles or just chillin! I don't know what it is about motorcycles, but it's my therapy ... my life blood! It will always be apart of my life!
I had the pleasure of meeting Oscar Funes for the first time this past Sunday. Charismatic and full of life. He fit the family like a glove! He joked, he laughed, and he could ride! I still remember his smile ... that goofy haircut ... the extra Medium T-Shirt he was earing that day ... and his laughter!
This past July 4th, Oscar passed away (news article) on a ride up in Ojai. I only knew him briefly, but it feels like we were friends since grade school.


Rest in Peace

Not to be overly pessimistic, but it's sad seeing people you love pass away. More like fade away … I had the great pleasure of visiting my Grandmother last weekend. As some of you know, she is not very healthy. It was good seeing her, but it was sad to see her as unhealthy and fragile as she was. She’s 92 … I don’t even know if I will live to be 92. Not to say I don’t want to, but … I hope to see her again.

Have you ever had one of those nights where you thought anything could happen? Well, it did a few weeks ago during John Hsu's going away after work party. How did it happen?! I'm not sure ... about the time some mentioned eating contest, I already had 5 beers. At first it was vegeterian vs. non-vegeterian ... then it turned into some Chicken McNugget eating contest ... then it was 4 lbs. of carrots vs. 12 donuts in 1 hour! How did it scale up to 8 lbs. of carrots and 24 donuts in an hour? I don't know ... but it was wild! <2 lbs. of carrots and 21.5 donuts later ... 3 of the 4 contestants threw up and all the spectators had a blast!

I've been working at Space Exploration for the last 6 months and the fruits of that labor have shown today March 20, 2007. No we didn't get a 100% success rate, but we broke through major milestones since last launch. First stage ignition, first stage separation, second stage ignition, and fairing separation ... all 10/10! I can't begin to describe the feeling I had when I watched the video telemetry feed of the launch. It was like nothing I've seen before! I've seen shuttle launches in the past, but this just seemed to hit a tuning fork within me. What an accomplishment for such a young company! Bigger and better things are yet to come! I will try to post up video feed of the launch when it becomes publicly available!

WOOOHOOO!!

Falcon1 DemoFlight2 Launch - Low Quality

Let me be the first in my family to post this information online! Congratulations go out to Azarah and Russell on their recent engagement! This is great news and I wish you the best in yuor life together. Azarah ... my little cousin ... I still remember when we were all younger. Playing Hide and Seek ... playing in the school yard ... you were always so interested in what Ron and I were doing. Why didn't you want to play with Nina and Penny? Maybe because they were geeks always reading their Sweet Sixteen books, but that's for another blog. :)

It's no wonder you grew up a Tom Boy. But hey! Whatever floats his boat right? ;P

So my mom visited this past weekend ... it was good seeing my mom again. It gives her time to spend with Kaith and leaves us a bit of time to talk about what's going on back home. Being in Southern California really leaves me out of the loop. I have to rely on my cousins for most of the information that goes around.
You might be a little puzzled by the Subject line ... well, it has to do with my Grandparents. As my mom was telling this story I was simply in awe. How can these people rip off this old couple!? I mean what is wrong with the world today!!? The story goes ... a couple of guys went up to my grandparents and told them they need to inspect their piping in the home. So they proceeded to tell them to go to the basement and knock on the pipes while they "check things out." Thank god nothing bad happened! But while my grandparents were downstairs ... these thieves rummaged through their belongings and stole anything valuable they could! WTF!!!? What ever happened to a hard days work!? The satisfaction of working hard for you money!!?!? This totally pisses me off! Not because this event is "close to home" but because this is wrong on so many levels that I can't even begin to list! My grandparents worked hard for their money and now it's gone. Will they ever feel safe in that house again? I wouldn't! And this is the house they've had for years! Decades!! This is their home! Where they raised their children!!!
Does it really stop there? NO! What about people that want everything, but don't want to work for it? Yeah you know those types. Greedy bastards! Money corrupts and turns people a different shade. My advise? Stay away from those people! The only thing they are interested in is money and how green it is.

Sad to say, but I know a few of those people ... and they are "closer to home" than I would like.

For what it's worth ... the old cliche "Live life one day at a time" is true. If there's anything that I've learned in my 31 years of life ... it's that life is short and should be enjoyed one day at a time. You never know what is around that corner much less next year so why worry about it?
Don't get me wrong. There's no harm in planning, but life is too short to worry about the what if's. What's done is done ... move on. We all make decisions that affect our lives. Some more than others and some decisions affect others more than others. But that's life ... it ain't perfect and it won't ever be.

Just got back from my trip to Taiwan and Shanghai. Check out the pics here. Boy am I tired! It was good seeing Will, Tim, and James in Taiwan. They showed me around to a great number of places. I definitely would be lost without them! Everyone seems to spend Christams holiday with family ... I do miss my family, but you guys are my family away from my family. Be safe and always know there's a home for you in the States.