This marks the first entry of my 36 day adventure away from Austin. This will be the longest consecutive stretch of time I will have been away from home (not including the detour to the frozen tundra) since I moved to central Texas a good while ago. Right now I am a bit nervous, really excited, and hopeful about all of the productive tasks I will accomplish. I just checked the weather and with the wind chill it’s right above zero degrees (Texas style) where I will be. Thursday, 12-31, I board a 6am United flight for a trip to San Francisco. I’ll spend new year’s eve in Sacramento and the next night in San Francisco. at 1:50pm on January 2, I get on a plane for a short 12 hour direct flight to Beijing. At 5:55pm on Sunday, January 2, Beijing time I arrive. The time difference is 14 hours ahead.
I pledge to take lots of photos and video and post both up on this site throughout the adventure.
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Greg Gordon Uncategorized Beijing China trip Greg Gordon Austin product development partymachines.com
I was attending a supper friends dinner last night at the Swoop house at 3008 Gonzales St. in East Austin. I was engaged in a convertation with a fellow former boy scout. He pointed out something really simple (to me) that I had not thought of before. We learned to start a fire with two matches. We were eleven. I can not think of many things that eleven year old boys want to do more than make fires. Until last night I was not aware of the lesson that I learned with that “two matches” story.
It’s all about the preparation. We would spend half an hour (sometimes in the rain) preparing that fire before we would think about striking those matches. Every single time (even in the rain) the fire would start. It’s amazing! All we had to do was be thoroughly prepared and that fire would start every single time. Heck, I was eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen learing this wonderful life lesson. This is another “a-ha” moment for me (in my life) about how wonderful the boy scouts continue to be for me.
In everything I do in my everyday life- as long as I prepare thoroughly- I will succeed. It is all in the preparation. I thought I was playing with fire. We were being taught a wonderful life lesson. It amazes me how wonderful the Boy Scouts still is to me.
What would happen if we used the two matches and the fire did not light?….. We did not have fire to cook our meal and we did not eat.
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