I've got to say that any reservations I still had about lon(ger) posts than ..say.. 3 - 5 lines might be uninteresting to people in corfid when I write them are rendered academic.
I try to [write longer posts]less, but still do some eye-popping 3 pagers (thanks to some healthy badgering I at least not seperate by paragraph if not content).
I have to say as well the famous people sheryl, mistym, and others above have run into are really interesting accounts to read, and I was totally unaware they were lon(ger) posts, as they had a ton of germaine material to the post opening question.
My additions to the subject I truly believe would not be of interest to the group - they are by and large luminaries in the field I am in, which I alltogether to-often digress to expounding upon. People who have been widely read and trend-setters at conferences attended by 6- 8,000 mappers from around the world - 63 countries at the last ESRI conference I went to.
But, alas, not of general interest.
Maybe one other type of non-celebrity, yet still famous ( in their field only) is worth giving pause and taking time to mention. My Dad. I know, I know, my Dad is stronger than your Dad, neener, neener. LOL . No, I do not mean any bragging in this vane.
I raise my father's name because he indeed was famous, in the field of rocketry and the space program. William R. "Russ" Dunbar. He is my personal idol in the sense of role model, wish I was more like him, admire him for his principles, and am astonished at his relentless perseverance in his field that culminated in such larger-than-life accomplishments as the Appolo program and man's landing on the moon, Skylab ( as big as a 3-BR house in space), Viking (an interplanetary spacecraft he co-designed and built the launch vehicle for (Atlas-Centaur) and was the first soft-lander on Mars in the 70's, not the two recent missions a few years back that were reported by TV to be the4 first. And finally, skipping dozens, and being an Ambassador to Germany in the Helios space program, Voyageur.
He built the rocketry for Voyageur and oversaw the contruct of the extra-planetary mission vehicle itself. Remember in the 70's ( ! ) the spacecraft with a plaque on the outside with a disrobed general form of a man and woman holding their hands up in the earthly universal "hello" sign ? Well that spacecraft module contained one of the first CD's made to contain a min-compendium of man's knowledge, sampling of arts, culture, music, literature,the sciences, engineering, history, photographs, and a mathematical model of our most prevalent earth's languages so any (alien) recipient could re-construct our math-encrypted languages.
Dad was the Chief Engineer for that project, and dozens of others. He was famous in his field to the extent that if you have heard while learning the sciences in shool of famous rocketry names like Werner Von Braun, and Goddard, well, Dad worked with them and then shot to stellar levels in his career to finish as The Director of the Unmanned Space Program.
Really the only reason I bring this example up at all, so far from music and celebrities, is in memorium. Dad passed away on May 13, last month. I have away several times to Northern Colorado to help my mother with onvious matters and her grieving, and attend to handling the interrment, etc.
In the memorial-style funeral, I gave a talk planned by the minister, as in "does any one wish to say anything about Russ?" - well, I'd arranged about a 30 minute spoken memorial to Dad and his accomplishments, and their place in history. Photos, war medals, rocket models, pictures of family backpacking and what-not were spread around the dias. So, I will miss my Dad more than I could ever have imagined, and had to put-off several PM replies, etc. my apologies and thanks for your patience.
Well, Dad was not famous in the traditional sense, and I know one who is in braod terms outside of a given field, but I am very lucky to have had a father like my Dad, who spent hundreds of nights over the years playing chess and cards with me whnile I grewup, and listened to him answer my endless questions like "Gee Dad, why does a rocket HAVE to reach the escape velocity constant of nearly 25,000 mph to leave the earht's gravitational field ?
True... unusual childhood but one that I was truly fortunate to have had with parents that came as close to perfectly...human as I could ever have hoped to have.
You know, this would be a very hazardous venue to lay open such raw unfinished feelings as these, but I have come to trust you guys and am willing to take my chops for the diatribe !
People who really appreciate GL music are indeed worthy of trusting these kind of thoughts to. That is also why I am saddened to hear of Sheryl's departure. Thats another thread, though.
Thanks for reading, for anyone who got this far.
- geo Steve
[ June 09, 2006, 04:53: Message edited by: geodeticman ]