Thursday, June 24, 2010

Things that Make Life Worth Living

Sometimes the most simple parts of life also happen to be the most satisfying.  Every once in a while I take a step back and try to see my life from a sort of detached perspective.  My "problems" then become irrelevant and even the most trivial details of life are interesting.  Today I thought I'd make a list of simple things that make my life great.  As I notice new things, I'll probably add to my list.


  1. Watching the setting sun cast golden shadows over the Rocky Mountains
  2. Walking through a sprinkler on a hot summer day
  3. Playing a 1-7 3-5 Fmaj7 chord with an added 9th on the piano
  4. Discovering new sounds and textures on the piano
  5. Listening to jazz music
  6. BOOM! Headshot.
  7. Designing new sensors
  8. Admiring a project after working hours to finish it
  9. Hearing cars drive too fast through the dip in the intersection next to my house.  CRUNCH!
  10. Watching bugs wander around the yard.  What are those little guys thinking?
  11. Playing frisbee
  12. Being busy with work
  13. Learning new and exciting ways to apply mathematics to solve real-world problems
  14. Writing
  15. Fantasizing about flying
  16. Reading the news and having a laugh at the expense of the politicians
  17. Crawling into bed after a long day of work
  18. Being self-employed
  19. Seeing pretty women
  20. Reading
  21. Looking at the mountains
  22. Interacting with friends and family
  23. Playing with my Droid
  24. Dreaming about building groups of robots that interact intelligently with the world
  25. Deriving equations that elegantly describe the physical world
  26. Speccing parts for sensor designs
  27. Sitting at my bedroom desk with the windows open
  28. Cleaning my bedroom
  29. Organizing
  30. Doing financial planning
  31. Speculating about unsolved problems in politics, religion, and science
  32. Trying to make sense of the world
  33. Flying RC airplanes and helicopters
  34. Bragging about my family
  35. Sneakily bragging about myself
  36. Cooking and eating food
  37. Being young
  38. Watching new films at the theater 

What simple parts of life do YOU like?