1.) Deciding

Science was always my favorite subject in school. I should have been a scientist. My journey in life just took me elsewhere.

It started with my mother, who was not very good at math. She didn't seem to expect, (or want?), me to be very good at it either.

Then there was that guidance counselor in junior high. In those days, (fall 1967), they separated students into three categories: "General", "Academic" and "Advanced". As I sat in my counselor's office with Mom, she explained that I wouldn't be joining all of my friends in the "Advanced" class, because I hadn't scored high enough on the standardized achievement tests. At 12 I didn't have the confidence to confess that I found the tests to be tedious and hadn't put much effort into them. Nobody had told me they were important, or even what they were for.

I effortlessly glided through junior high and high school without doing much studying, homework, or even note taking ... the smartest guy in the "Academic" group. I graduated 132 out of a class of 535 and I didn't even show up very often in my senior year.

Mom wanted me to be a cop, like her dear old dad. She said it would be the "practical" thing to do. Where I lived, that required two years of college. My parents had no money for it, so I stumbled into a Regents Scholarship Exam without any preparation, (or even knowing what was on it), and scored just high enough to pay my way through an Associates Degree in Criminal Justice.

I earned my degree at 19. I had already figured out that I didn't want to be a cop. Unsure of what else to do for money, I went to work in night club as a bouncer. While that was fun for a few years, I didn't see it as a long term career. Eventually I went to work in banking, (because it involved wearing a tie, like a real adult?). Banking lead me to accounting. I got married and had two children. I worked full time and went to business school at night. My wife said it would be the "practical" thing to do. Accounting lead to computers and networking. I began to enjoy sharing my knowledge more than applying it, so I taught business and technical courses at a local college for a few years.

Now I'm older, (54). The kids are in college and on their own. I have a new wife who supports herself and just wants me to be happy. I still do accounting work to pay the bills.

I am tired of watching TV and fussing around with my computer. I need a serious hobby. It needs to be something really interesting and challenging ... something that will really occupy my mind for the next 10 to 30 years. I like to solve problems. I want to use my spare time to work at solving a really challenging scientific problem.

I learned recently that Roy Disney passed away. He was a great man and will be missed by many. I took the time to do some reading about his life and accomplishments. I read an article in Wikipedia about the process of "Imagineering". Perhaps I can apply some of the key principles.

* Imagineers are governed by a few key principles

* Often new concepts and improvements are created to fulfill specific needs. Many ingenious solutions to problems are Imagineered in this way.

* Imagineers return to ideas that, for whatever reason, never came to fruition. These ideas are often reworked and appear in a different form – like The Museum of the Weird, a proposed walk-through wax museum that eventually became The Haunted Mansion.

* There is the principle of “blue sky speculation,” a process where Imagineers generate ideas with no limitations – the sky’s the limit. They start the creative process with what is referred to as “eyewash” – the boldest, wildest, best idea one can come up with, presented in absolutely convincing detail. Many Imagineers consider this to be the true beginning of the design process and operate under the notion that if it can be imagined, it can be built.

* Imagineers are always seeking to improve upon their work – what Disney called “plussing.” He firmly believed that “Disneyland will never be completed as long as there’s imagination left in the world,” meaning there is always room for innovation and improvement. (Summary and quotes from "Imagineering" at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_Imagineering)

My next blog entry: The wildly impractical "Eyewash"

Donkey Hoteee