Monday, May 20, 2013

Always Bring Duct Tape to Point Lobos

Mark and I went diving at Point Lobos yesterday.  The water was pretty murky and milky, I had difficulties working my camera housing, and I also had several equipment malfunctions (jerry-rigged snorkel keeper, blown out tank o-ring, torn wrist seal), but all in all, it was still pretty fun. It was just good to get back in the water, and we got to enjoy some topside attractions as well.

Here are the best pictures I could salvage:

Hermissenda Nudibranch

Baby fish hanging out in the kelp forest

I ripped a serious hole in one of my latex wrist seals after the first dive. (If only I had had thought to bring duct tape, we could have continued the dive). But with the conditions being average, and not knowing how to fix the leak, we decided to hike around Point Lobos instead. Actually, the scenery above the water was quite stunning, and I think it's too bad that we divers don't enjoy the scenery above water at Point Lobos more. It was gorgeous.



Dive #209:
Viz: 5-20 feet
Depth/Time/Temperature: 40 ft/0:59 minutes/48 deg F
Tank/Weight worn:
Mina wore: PST HP80/10 lbs on weight belt, 4 lbs in BCD, 1 lb on my ankles (thought I as a little light - time to lose some weight)
Mark wore: AL80 tank/ 20 lbs on weight belt, 6 lbs in BCD (Mark felt like he was too light. I told him that he should have worn 8 lbs of extra lead, but decided to try less weight.)

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Dreaming Big

When we were young, it used to be so easy to dream big.   When I was little, I dreamt that someday, I would own houses in Paris, Rome and New York and that I would drive a yellow Lambourghini Countach, a white Mercedes SLK and a red Ferrari Testarossa (it was the 80's afterall).  Now that I've grown older, have a mortgage, and have friends with kids, it's been easy to abandon my dreams.  I don't remember how to dream, let alone practiced enough to dream big.

Recently, I have been inspired by the Marvel comic book movies. My husband, Mark, and I hunkered down and watched Thor, Captain America, Iron Man and Marvel's Avengers on DVD every weekend before watching Iron Man 3 on the big screen just a couple of days ago.  If Stan Lee had the imagination to dream up the various super heroes, and if Hollywood could come up with the amazing flights of fancy that are the Marvel movies, why should I relinquish my dreams?  Perhaps I should be letting my imagination fly and dream bigger.

Oh sure, it is one thing to fantasize about my next vacation, my next hobby, my next Solopreneur project, but all of these things are within the realm of the possible.  Why not dream about something that seems a little impossible?  And maybe by the act of imagining it, it can become possible. By listing my dreams are, perhaps I can conjure my dreams out of the ether.  And maybe in 5 years, when I reread what I have written now, I will have discovered that I have achieved one or two, or maybe even all of my dreams in some form or another. So here are a few of my "impossible" dreams:

1. Design and live in a house with a unencumbered view of the the ocean, much like Tony Stark's Malibu home in the Iron Man movies.

2. Purchase and drive a Porsche 911 off of the production line in Stuttgart and onto the Autobahn. I recently drove on the Autobahn in a Mitsubishi from Stuttgart to Tubingen, and reached a fairly mild speed of 129 mph but had to slow down to calm my racing heart.  Besides the Mitsubishi was starting to feel aerodynamically unstable. I can only imagine how different driving a Porsche might be.

3. I'd love to someday attend a high-glamour event like the Cannes Film Festival, The Met Ball in New York, or even the Oscars in Hollywood.  Oh well, a girl can dream.

4. Produce a work of art (film, visual) that actually reaches a larger audience.

5. Work with a great team of people on an epic project that I believe in strongly... OK. This is not such a big dream, because it is actually very doable.  As an engineer who has already been blessed with experiences working on products that helped enhance people's lives, I can already say that I have accomplished this dream to some effect.  I can say that the experience is addictive and I would love to be able to do it again.

6. Have an adventure, and not get hurt. For example, I am quite drawn to post-apocalyptic zombie stories. I don't believe in violence - I can scarcely hunt and kill an abalone to eat, but I would absolutely love an excuse to wield a big shotgun and shoot some zombies in the face. 


20 Goals for 2019

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