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?


      Posted by at

      6 comments:

      1. UnknownJune 25, 2010 at 1:59 PM

        Reasons you are Utarded:
        1,4,9,11,16,21,22,27,34

        Reasons you are nerdy:
        3,4,7,8,12,13,15,17,18,19,20,23,24,25,30,31,32,33

        Reasons you are queer:
        1,2,3,4,5,10,11,14,20,21,23,25,27,28,29,32,34,35,26,37,38, (& the act of writing this list)


        And to answer your question, I _love_ mocking posts like this...

        ReplyDelete
      2. MichaelJune 25, 2010 at 7:07 PM

        good list, Caleb

        ReplyDelete
      3. UnknownJune 25, 2010 at 7:36 PM

        I was gonna go through and list all of these that would be on my list, but there were too many ;) Maybe I'll just make my own list...

        And no more with the bajillion years between posts, you hear me?

        ReplyDelete
      4. VoiceafxJune 26, 2010 at 9:22 AM

        I should also make a list of things that I hate - Bill, you'd be at the top of the list!

        ReplyDelete
      5. HomeSymphonyJuly 19, 2010 at 7:52 PM

        -Holding family dances in the evenings with Steve and our four preschoolers.
        -Smelling bread baking in the oven
        -Cooking gourmet and presenting the finished product artistically on the table
        -Having a clean kitchen
        -Taking great photos
        -When swimming laps in the outdoor pool, feeling refreshed after the first initial shock of cold
        -Roasting garlic
        -The sound of people enjoying a good game in the basketball court outside our apartment
        -Being idle in Oak City
        -Playing the first four bars of several different pieces as Nancy "helps" me turn the pages at the piano
        -Kissing my sleeping baby's cheeks
        -De-cluttering my house
        -Monsoon season in Santa Fe

        ReplyDelete
      6. UnknownJuly 27, 2010 at 7:52 AM

        -A perfect cut on the lathe: chips breaking off and gleaming mirror-finish exposed.

        -Sound of high school football practice in field behind house.

        -The gust/bump that tells me I've put the nose of my glider right into the center of a thermal.

        -Slow, tail-first touch down landing in the Pilatus (this happens infrequently...)

        -Watching others flights from the edge of a grass runway.

        -The "THUNK" of pulling the cable release, and the sudden silence as the tow-plane dives away hard to the left.

        -Smelling hay and seeing clippings at 6500 feet. (Big thermal!)

        -The smell of melted ABS plastic as my Makerbot prints a new part.

        -The smell of fresh coolant in the CNC.

        -The sound of chips hitting the glass door during a deep cut on the CNC mill.

        -High-revving my bike to blow past a teenager in a sports car.

        -"putt-putting" my bike along Pittsburgh city streets.

        -The smell of gasoline and oil on a warm engine.

        -The clank of tools on an engine.

        -Cutting a perfect line when racing go-carts.

        -Going to the Strip District to buy fresh produce and meat.

        -Designing something beautiful.

        -Sweeping my home shop.

        -Sitting in home shop.

        -The moment I finish a new creation and stand back to look at it, sometimes for an hour...

        -Seeing a robot project act as if it could think in some small way.

        -Seeing people who don't know each other greet as if they were old friends.

        -The visceral sensation of playing with big, full tenor sax sound. From fingertips, to lips, throat, and chest, all vibrating in their own way. Then there is the sound...

        -Jazz (can I say more?)

        -Sitting down to a good jazz show at a club with people I know.

        ReplyDelete

      Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)