One step at a time.

As 2008 comes to a close it's time too take a look back at everything, and hopefully reflect on some things for the new year.

Work:
Work has kept me both sane, and insane this year. I must admit I never would have expected achieving as much as I have and moving forward I'm excited about what the new year will bring. In March my department suffered a round of layoffs which forced me to move from an Austin-wide role to a more site specific role at Oak Hill managing the water and air programs. I've attempted to retain some of my previous responsibilities, but that is proving to be more difficult than I had anticipated. I'm glad for the change as I'm finally doing what I was hired for and what I went to school for. More notably this year I have personally contributed over $270,000 in cost savings to my organization within the company with nearly $500,000 in indirect contributions. Overall since I started working for the company I have broken past the $600,000 mark in annual savings that is realized as a direct result of my efforts. My department has won several awards this year that I submitted for including the Keep Texas Beautiful Business Award, the Austin Business Journal Going Green Award, and various Austin Water Conservation awards. Another exciting achievement; since I took over environmental compliance we have had zero notices of violation!

Earlier this month I was notified that I would be nominated by Freescale for the New Faces in Engineering recognition put on by the Engineer's Week Foundation. Low and behold, after reaching several milestones in the process I will be among about 8 other "New Faces" of 2009! I am representing both Freescale and the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP); So keep a look out for the USA Today Article in February!

Speaking of gay, I'm slowly but surely coming out at work. It's not something I want to just exude as to not hinder my future career, but several people in the office have asked about it and most of the group that I work with (if not all) at Oak Hill know. It's almost refreshing, but at the same time nerve wracking. Hopefully it will at the least help to make everyone more comfortable knowing that someone they are close to is gay.

Family
This year has been a trying one for me. There is the usual drama on my dad's side of course while on my mom's side I have lost a cousin to alcohol poisoning and an uncle to heart disease (he leaves behind his wife and three kids). Otherwise for the most part things outside of the immediate family have been standard operating procedures.

Sometime in March or April my father was diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer/blood disease; so rare in fact that when he goes to the doctor there are usually a team of them observing in the background. He has been undergoing some light-therapy treatment (essentially a VERY strong tanning bed, as in more than 60 seconds and you're burnt). They know it won't cure him but they are hoping to at least keep it from worsening. He very well could live a good many years; however, it has spread through much of his body so there is really no telling. At this point I'm not really sure what to think. My father and I have never been very close; I hate to see him go but I'm not going to worry about it until the time comes.

In August my parents decided to take in a foreign exchange student from Slovakia. Anna, lives with them now and will continue to live here until June when she moves back home. She is a senior in High School and is looking forward to graduation in the spring. I must admit, she is a very humble and interesting person to talk to. I'm looking forward to spending more time with her this coming year.

All-in-all my immediate family is doing well. Mom and Dad are still happy together and working the same jobs. My sister now works at my old stomping grounds, Austin's Pizza. She is a 3rd-year with Senior Credits at UT majoring in Math and Kinesiology, and make very good grades I might add. Tomorrow morning we are all leaving on a trek through the mid-west to end at Kansas City to visit my dad's family for my grandmother's birthday on January 1st. I'm already looking forward to being back home though.

Relationships
In all honesty this year seems to have been a relatively uneventful one. I dated one guy for about 6 weeks and he ended it because he wasn't feeling it anymore. Looking back I can't say that I blame him, but it did hurt at the time. My promiscuous phase came to an end early this year and stayed that way throughout. I think given my intense working schedule and focus combined with being out of college my game has suffered a bit, but I'm not letting it get me down. I'm planning to approach 2009 with a more laid back approach to meeting that one guy, I figure he'll turn up when it's time and not a moment too soon.

Friendships
This has been an interesting year for friends. For the most part I have kept touch with all of those that are the most important to me. Nathan has of course been an unwavering pillar for me through it all and having him here is one of the biggest reasons I haven't gone completely off the deep end yet. Jack has remained a very close and loyal friend this year despite a few challenges early on, but we are better for it. Many close friends have come and gone; James R, James C, Austin, and some others; while I have also gained many new ones; Kris, Alex, & Tyler.

Overall I must admit my relationship with Austin has suffered greatly this year. Perhaps it's living together that has caused it, but it didn't seem to start until after May when he finished college. He now has a new boyfriend Dustin who has and still is shaping and moulding him into the perfect guy...the only problem is it's not the same Austin. We have really drifted apart these past few months but mostly because I feel like I don't even know him anymore. I think it's important to realize that throughout life friends will drift in and out, but that doesn't mean they don't leave their mark. I will always love Austin and he has been a very wonderful friend.

Time to forge ahead
With 2008 coming to a close I welcome 2009 with open arms. I'm looking forward to a new president, and a hopefully better economy. Perhaps the most important thing I've learned this year is how quickly everything can change, and how impossible it is to be prepared for all of the outcomes. I hope to enter 2009 with a more realistic and laid back approach to life. I want to branch out more, volunteer for HRC, fight for gay rights, make new friends, and cherish friends I already have.

Given everything new and exciting about next year I don't think anyone will be able to predict where it goes. 525,600 minutes is a long time with so many possibilities. This year one song in particular has stood out to me, "One Step at a Time" by Jordan Sparks sums up how I want to approach life from now on. In general I know where I'd like to be but the path is unknown. It is important to take each step one at a time, and that's how I plan to move through the next 12 months; savoring all 525,600 minutes of it. Where I'll end up is anyone's guess, but I plan to make getting there ALL the fun.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love Always,
Rob

Thought this was pretty cool

So we keep hearing about all these new green technologies. Here is one I thought was interesting from an MIT researcher. I borrowed this post from the Good Cleantech Blog.

MIT to Test Innovative Wave Power System



Chiang Mei, the Ford Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, is one of the earliest advocates of ocean wave energy. Since the late 1970s he has been working on developing new ways of harnessing this awesome renewable force -- research which recently culminated in the creation of the oscillating water column (OWC).

The device is the product of Mei's collaborations with his colleges from the Technical University of Lisbon and is based on numerical simulations that can predict wave forces on a given device and the system's resulting motion. Situated on or near the shore, an OWC consists of a chamber with a subsurface opening. The system works by modulating water and airflow as waves come in and out and channel into an electricity-generating turbine. "We found that we could optimize the efficiency of the OWC by making use of the compressibility of air -- something that is not intuitively obvious," Mei says. "It's very exciting."

The Portuguese-planned OWC facility, to be built at the mouth of the Douro River in Porto, will include three columns that together will generate 750 kilowatts -- enough to power 750 homes. For more on the OWC go here or visit the MIT Energy Initiative.

For Those Who've Loved

For those who've loved, you understand the sheer intoxication of it; how nothing else seems to matter, and that whatever the outcome, the risk is always worth it in the end. Due to the nature of love it is inherently abstract. For those who haven't experienced the feeling it can be difficult to comprehend, let alone to justify making a leap of faith and opening up to someone. Sadly, most of the time love is not forever, and the most difficult part of falling out of love is getting to the realization that love will come once again; probably never in the same way as it once did, but what makes love exciting is that it is always different.

One of the most important things about life is to mourn the losses because they are many, but celebrate the victories because they are few. Love is always a victory. No matter the outcome and no matter context, to love is to have lived.

Often times the thought of being so close to someone is scary. Many people even go to extremes avoiding it, and the most common way is putting up road blocks that inhibit the possibility of ever letting someone get that close to you. For most this is a subconscious act. Constantly making excuses or finding reasons to avoid getting close. From not wanting to get close to someone because you plan to move away soon, for fear of getting hurt, or because it's just not as perfect as it was the first time these reasons and many more hold you back from living. Inside everyone yearns to discover what love is and to experience it, but what they don't realize is that by making these excuses you're missing out on life.

Interestingly all these excuses seem to be similar in that they have more to do with the losing love, and less about actually being in love. The good news though is that all of these reasons and excuses are in our ability to remediate. For the most part the only person putting up these road blocks is you and luckily you have the ability to pull them down; save for one. For those who happen to find love with persons of the same sex there is one road block being put up that is making life difficult for all of us. This particular road block is difficult to pull down because on the surface it doesn't seem to affect our ability to love, but what it does instead is affect our right to do so. Although the ability to marry the person you love does not keep you from loving, but for many of us knowing that the summit is legally unattainable is enough to leave us hesitant to start the climb.

Banning same-sex marriage is essentially someone else putting an obstacle in the way of living your life, but not only that, it's someone else telling us that what we experience is not love, and is somehow less significant than love between a man and woman.

For those who've loved this should be an outrage, and for those who haven't it is so important that you realize how devastating this is for the rest of us. To have someone tell you that the most immense joys, excruciating pains, intense vulnerabilities, and highest accomplishments you have felt were not only fake and unnatural, but also less significant than theirs is debilitating. The most difficult part of this to understand is that by trivializing what gays experience as love to be something less than that inherently threatens the significance of what everyone experiences as love. Part of what makes love so special is the fact that everyone can have it.

To give love boundaries is to destroy what makes it great, and for this reason all of us, gay and straight, should be fighting against them. It's time to stand up and demand equal recognition for love in all of its forms. Allowing love to be devalued is the same as allowing our lives to be devalued. This isn't about your physical person being sub-class; creed, race, and religion have no bearing here. This is about your life. Fight for your right to live because the true meaning of life is love, and without it life is empty and pointless.