Encores of Excellence, Claps, and Critiques Departing the Mars Observation (& Skate) Deck
Disclaimer: Everything below is a mix of what I observed and heard during the event. The goal isn’t to pinpoint "who exactly said what," but to share (usually) an outsider's view and overall perspective on these industries. I’m not here to act as a definitive firsthand source—readers should do their own research. I hope this inspires you to attend events, explore new industries, and hear what leaders are presenting. These notes combine my observations with thoughts on how things could run smoother and how ideas connect (IMO). I’m not an expert, you know? Just hanging out in the room with them. Enjoy!Topics: Skate Park, Venice Beach, Commuting, Motivation, Grit, Drive, Persistence, Interplanetary Life, Humanity, Science, Compassion, Advocacy, NASA, Budget Cuts, Congress
I slept plenty, though you wouldn't think so looking at a clock. (Philosophy Tangent: But... thats why I removed most clocks/'time' from as much of my life as possible. I have my phone in a language I don't understand so I never know the time by mistake, you know? Just live a little.) Now, philosophy aside, I enjoyed a bit more time at the skate park this morning, said by to a friend, was the art... and then returned to see Mars once more. I had such a great time at the banquet last night that I wanted to give another speech or two my attention if it'd have it. It only added an hour and a few dollars onto my journey, but each moment would be well spent... so, back to the mars event we go... one last time this year.
Why Attend: Lots of technology that applies to “the future of Mars” applies to “today of Earth” now. I think that was a big takeaway I got from yesterday's speeches (or the day before?) The idea that some people live too much in the dream of 'the future' and working on the present is important, too. I think that's a lot of why I came her this year... I want to larn more about what applies to today's world on Earth (and of course dream of human/environmental survival & thrival). Also, the experience of watching a community come up with how systems, foods, solutions... how these things will be solved on a new planet in new settings. It's very fascinating and gives you a bit of reverse-culture shock.
OVERALL EVENT REVIEW: Venue (4/5), Food (5/5), Speaker Content (4/5), Networking (2/5), Likeliness to Return (3/5)
Photo Collage and Commentary:
Notes from the Event:
SKATEPARK EXPERIENCE:
This morning was really nice. I felt pretty fresh in the morning and then was just in the mood for a tiny breakfast and heading out to the skate park. I brought some peppermint tea, too. I stayed out there for about an hour or more. One guy showed up who was incredibly talented, though he hurt himself twice. Once very early on, re-opening an old wound doing something wimple... then later he hurt himself again. Regardless, he was extremely talented.
This morning there were a lot of more beginner/intermediate skaters out. It makes sense... Saturday morning. Just seems like a time you'd have a bit of a crowd, so if you were a true skater you'd be competing with blah blah. Probably you make your schedule more unique so you can skate odd times. That's good to know for the future. But I still had fun watching it for a while. At one point, I filmed the guy I'd befriended the other day cause he said "get your phones out for this one" and then after, another guy was in my video. I can't remember if he landed the trick or not, but after that, he set up his camera with me in the background and then the sunshine behind me and then a cone in front and then he kept doing tricks over the cone trying to land it. So, suddenly all of my reactions were on camera.
At first I had mixed feelings towards this, though, then I realized it was sorta part of it. And, I truly enjoy watching skateboarding . So, there's a bit of a reflective art in someone loving waht you do, you know? There is beauty to someone appreciating your talent similar to the talent itself. I'm not sure how much they balance, depends who you ask.
So, at one point I realized that in the way they are art and entertainment for me, performing and practicing at the bowl... maybe it's art to them, to see someone truly enjoy their work. And, there were many people doing tricks that he captured over hte time he was filming, so it was kinda funny because you just can't help but react as people do tricks, or almost make it, or even hurt themselves a little, and then achieve their goals. You know? So... yeah, it was like the tables were turned, and it felt a bit similar to Shanghai even. But, different, because the attention was semi more deserved. I felt that every day of shanghai, no matter what I did, I would attract attention. The city was so big and I stood out. A lot. no matter what.
Here, I totally blend into the world almost every day - if i'm casual. Dressed to impress, well. I mean, thats the point, even I'm impressed - so sometimes it gets more attention. but ,mostly, its easy to just not stand out here... in the 'peaceful on your nervous system' way.
So, then being there, and getting that attention suddenly, I realized 'omg, whts happening' but also... well, i literally just did the same to him. so. yeah. And I really like watching the skateboarding hahah. And I was in a great dress! So, I mean. I was thinking of even asking him if i could see it hahah. Make a gif of it, right? But ,maybe next time. I was too shy!!! The human experience in rising technology, huh?
ARRIVAL TO MARS:
I sat down by the back wall charger to get started when I arrived. I was sitting right behind a mom and her daughter. The daughter was so chatty, so I tapped the mom's shoulder and asked if I could offer her daughter some of the food I got from the hostel (a granola bar and clementine). The mom said that would be great. Then the little girl was super happy and I smiled back at her, but also kinda gave her the hint of "be quiet because there is a presentation going on right now". So it was good.
haah and just like that the presentation is over. LOL i wonder if there is one more guy. I think so. But first i wanna return a booklet to my friend who gave me his extra booklet last night at dinner, thinking t was mine.
Te guy on stage says "how long till we go to mars" and the 3yo says, "I don't want to go to mars!" and he says "i'm not sure how long from getting the check until we go to mars".
Okay so this guy on stage says that he was recently on their podcast and he's spoken with this group a few times. So now he wants to talk about how elon musk says we're on pace to have people on mars for 2030... I just don't believe it. we've talked about it, thought about it, there are studies out there.
At the end of this, I don't put numbers on this stuff, but it's a little longer than the 4 years elon said....
Then someone wrote a book about how to change everything and process it with time. YOu'll see in the 40s and 50s the concepts of how to get to mars.
As we landed the different things and had orbiters, you started seeing how we started learning things and changing architectures. The entire book has stuff tha is no longer relevant so I don't suggest you read it all.
- hahah that's funny and true! as things are new you just make it and of course new stuff is disoered.
Ther are studies on how to get from moon to the mars. All of these studies are out there. We weren't even allowed to say mars back in the early Obama administration, but you see things change. How do you land, take a picture on the surface? Tech has to be developed. You've got 15 technologies people just thorugh of. Then widdle that down to a few techonologies,then those go on.
The reasonable cost constraints need to be reasonable.
You can plan future missions and budgets. That's why we're doing studies.
As we think about what we have to do, it becomes an order to what the engineering and prep has to be to get to mars. You have to get people and machinery on the surface. You're able to plan future missions and budgets as things go on. Everytime you go to mars, you learn something. We learn what we do or don't have to do going forward.
Many studies on what you have to do before getting humans to mars.
Look at the measurements that have to be made... and you could tell who is making the priority decisions... the measurements were going the same but different things go up and down. People working in installation and fine particls move priorities around. You kinda know these things before you can send a human to mars.
Three things that absolutely require dedicated precursor missions
- martian dusts
radiation effects on humans on the surface and in interplanetary space
designing and testing landing systems for humans
How do you protect people from radiation and not create extra radiation environments on earth. You need to understand the radiation environment for hte humans because just to get there is going to be a year.
RIght now we are very good at landing very 1000kg rovers on the surface of mars. But we can't take that landing tech to the sky frame and bring it bigger, it doesn't work. Yo'ure going from 40,000 to zero in 8 minutes.
You need to design a landing and testing system for humans.
I want to see the thing works before I Get on a rocket, on a bomb and I want to see it work before yo uget me on there.
Cost, Schedule, and Risk are all interrelated.
Earlier I gave some cheerios and random snacks to the little girl too. SHe's doing a good job being quiet now. hahah. Thats good. IT's hard to be quiet, you know hahah. But sh'es doing a good job.
Some older man was so happy to see her ,but then he now is shushing her,this little girl... and now he's checking the weather. Has sushing even ever worked? You know. LOL why shush this little girl and make the mom feel bad if you're not even listening. And why were you so happy to come sit by a kid if you then want the kid to be quiet. What do you expect, mr weather obsessed. Geeze. I haven't looked up the weather for liek 20 years. And you know what, never been a problem for me. This guy. Just making people feel bad. Support her haha. Now he takes a screenshot of his weather. To each their own. Unless you’re up to no good, guy!!!!!!!!! In your secret freetime. Just saying.
Okay back to the presentation.
Understand the relationship between money and knowledge. And then eventually we can bring back sample return.
Then he shows the mission life cycles. he prephase is 20 mnths,then a = 6 months, then b is 6 months, phase c is 12 months, phase 2 is 24 months, and phase E is 24 months. (Wow, le'ts do some math ahhaha how long is this ,i'll guess 8 years) - yeah!! Almost. wow. That's a long time. 8 years just for one launch. It'd become your life. :)
oh, and he's saying something about how the missions can go even further.
Also, I like how he has typos.
Now he has a pic of himself, like a selfie of himself and he's helping people with the trails. He said he's helping out with the trails. He said the dust from the trails got all in his eyes. His shirts are pre-stained The dust is miserable up ther.
But he said that the apollo astronauts were outside for 2 hours. He says his whole face was covered in dust. He's breathed all that dust in. And if you're on Mars the dust will reduce your lifespan. we're not trying to reduce lifespan.
- I'm going to go get myself a drink, freshen up, and then return.
Take home message: probably 18-30 years till we can wlak on mars. but how can you do all of this with the orbital dynamics, budgets, and development schedules will determine when that first mission can take place.
- there are several mission sthat must occur to help make the missions safe
So, I did arrive late, but they're running 50 minutes late for speeches. Now they are taking
- one guy says there are a lot visuals that are not just graphics and that was helpful.
- do particles just split into other (idk)
Okay... so idk what's even going on right now cause next is going to be a zoom meeting. They're having him give a speech but I kinda just want to go. I don't want to stay here for a zoom presentation. But they will welcome this guy and then the next guy... so, its literally what I asked for.
Now this guy says he needs to figure out how to share his screen. And now the guy on zoom is turned to fullscreen. He has a bunch of crazy instruments in teh ackground of him. Like instruments from other countries. And its just him and his face with his glasses and moustache and hedphones and his headphones. So now he needs to restart his internet explorer to make this work. So now we all are just going standby he says.
Now he says that he's admitting himself to be recorded. Then he shakes his head in frustration... however, seems its still not working.
And now his face is frozen on screen. And now they have it working.
He says this is a special year this year, its a treaty based organization,not a national agency. They have organizational logistics that are not obvious and don't fit to expectations. THey have funding approvals and a conference this year at the end of November. Here is where the next budget is endourses. THe member state flags are at the bottom. Along with the right hand side there. Three cooperating states, Canada is the one cooperating state.
Expore 2040 is the strategy for the human/robotic space exploration. There is an overall agency stragey for hte same stratey that allows Europeans will take it upon thsmesleves to explore mars. Europeans want to explore the moon in 2030... and then we'll maintain a human presence in and utilization fo LEO (whats LEO? IDK) - he says lets move ahead nd try to catch up some time. THat's thoughtful,since now they're 40 minutes late and skipping lunch hahah. But its good that I did decide to come here because I had a fun morning watching skateboarding (at least a bit, the best I could with my time/situation) - and then now I get this well-timed for me situation.
Okay - OH and I think I can take the subway/train the entire way to the airport from here. I bet :)
Preparing for the European astronaut flights to the ISS securing the utilization benefits. STudy crewed transportation travel.
Then this little girl pulls like 20 credit cards out of her mom's wallet. I've never seen anything like it. I told the little girl to be a bit more quiet - and I think she will. And i gave the girl a little toy plane to play with. Probably makes everyone more peaceful to play with a toy airplane instead of a bunch of credit cards.
This is good. Now the little girl will try to open it up. She looks a bit like my daughter.
They say that the MSR: ESA Assessment of Draft Bills
- overall appropriation process duration and outcome remains uncertain
commercial provider focus implies minimum 12 months lad time to contract from enactment of the Act
300MS/year has already been concluded (oh, he changed the screen)
THen th next screen he says he'll get to in a second.
Then the senate committee mentioned direcftly encouraging Nasa to work on a mission to get science from mars in 2030, with a launch in 2028.
The duration of appropriateon is at risk. We need to think about what the risks of that launch will be. Think aobut NASA's project the name is ROSA - that's the nasa projet name,the operation. The proposal for 2026 was to zero out rosa, congress is sayin something different. We're not sure how that will end up.
The ESA Mars program proposaes prioritizing franklin. They're allowing flexibility to await massive decisinos. The repurposed mission currenly planned in 2032, we're developing towards that and diversification of partnerships and liteships which are perceived like busses which carry halo spacecraft which establish communications network.
This can lead to heavier and more precise landing systems int he 2040s.
They're making good progress to the lauch date for their "franklin in 2028.
They have been testing flight parachutes that were in storage they were from a 2020 lanch, then cancelled, but now the tested those and we are now going to (idk what) in the next couple of weeks.
A mockup and structural landing model, the landing platform. That'st he this time around, finally for 2028.
ESA and surope with our own landing system. Okay... sooooo I think I may go to the airport early/son. RIght? Or whats the last speech?
Well.. the next speaker is a space journalist. I'll give him 5 minutes and if he's interesting, I stay. If not... DO I GO BACK TO VENICE? - do i go back now and watch more skateboarding? it's 12:20 - i could be back by 1:30... Then I need to leave by 2... no, that's way to cramped, right? hahha. Yeahhhh. Probably. If i need to be at the airport by 3 and its 12:30 now and I wouldn't get to the skate park until 1:30 and then I need to leave by 2... no... nope hahaha. okay. Well, worth the thought.
I could easily just go to the airport and work... just peaceful. SO I think I'll do that, if the next speaker isn't interesting to me. Right? I need to leave by 2... so if the next person is interesting, I can stay for 2 more speeches. If not, leave early and arrive early, peacefully. Maybe even stop by the rose gardens again. They smelled extremely well.
They wanna make thigns called like MIRAGE which stands for like Mars Image blah blah idk.
I was sorta tuned out but saw that at the last second. That's a later stage thing but lots of other things like MIRAGE and such to deploy and aim towards.
I'll go sit int he lobby and eat a little. WAIT he's talking about MEDAL: mars. advanced. idk idk. it stands - oh ;> Mars Advanced ENtrey Descent ad Landing - its pre-phase a. due to complete with pre-a by Q1 2026.
He says everything hinges on funding and decisions to make and reprioritize.
Now that guy just ran 30 minutes over on his speech. And here comes a speaker. one of the leaders of all of this. But its a closing thought he wants to take advantage of ad take some remakrs.
Where will we be next year? Good chance this university depending on availability. Try here first. Secondly, yesterday we had presentations as part of our "Mars Against Hunger" prize competition (that's what I attended some of by mistake). That challenge,you see... the settlement of mars will require a revolution in food production. Because, while you can do a mars expoidition without any innovation in food production tech, you can have a mars base that is 20-50 people and support it with conventional greenshouse in labs and companies... but if yo ustart looking at the requirement of a city, not even 1M. Even 50,000 *which is the size of renaissance Florence r revolutionary phildephia)it gets compleltey out f control. THe problem is the funding of the problem, its the inifficienty of photosyntehsic. Its only 4% efficient at the cloropast level,and (then he says even more liek a cornfield and a level of a cow). THis creates enormous problems, we need a more advanced way to produce food. This would enable human space settlement. If it is developed, it will answer the greatest needs of the neediest people on earth - which is that for food.
Mars against hunger is our noble challenge. It won't be solved by critics of space exploration.
We created a challenge and offer a 10k prize for someone who can demonstrate the tech and offer the promise to produce and offer food... none of them met the criteria of the prize. However, one team had taken a good step in that direction. THey are going to be given a prize for the best of this year. THis team is a team from Mexico. Working on catalyrtic photosynthesis. The ultimate prize remains to be run. We will have another round next year and we want experimental demonstrations.
They won as the best so far. Congratulations to Mexico for winning.
THen finally,um,ust o make a few remarks. Once again, as we saw last night. he incredible discoveries being made by the NASA program. And, the credible prospects it has. And now we've been starting to see evidence that NASA may well have discovered proof of life on mars. All this stuff coming in, elemental sulphur,alchimes (basically oil) discovered.
None of them are concrete proof, you can always find an alternate explanation for each one. But it is starting to add up. But its starting to show that life may be plentiful in the universe. THe universe belongs to life. This is one of the most transformative discoveries... though it is anticipatd fiction. We haven't yet, but we are about to. And yet, it is under threat.
One f the greatest scientific ethics of all time, space exploration, launched by nasa in he 1950s which has been supported every administration since Eisenhower,now its being threatened by a bunch of punks. Thats all you can say about it. The doge is working for someone who can be described as a complete incel,degenerate,(many in the audience laugh). This is an expic quest,to Jupiter, Saturn, a 5th force is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate.
Why does the universe exist? How did it come to exist? Matter and energy can not be created and destroyed.
Well there's a problem itth theory - (he slaps his phoen or something down) there's some matter here, how does it exist. And the most important words in science are not eureka, its "that's seems odd" the things that cause you to question things. YOu know? 130 or 150 years ago there was a fundamental mystery. About the age of the earth and the sun. okay? It could not be explained. Okay? The geologists, okay? They said look the earth has to be at least 100B years old cause we look at erosion and so forth and we can get an idea how long it took to make the grand canyon and things like this. Ther's no way the earth is 4,00 years old, it must be 100,000,000,000 years old but physicysts said that is impossible, look at the sun burning at this rate. IT couldn't last longer than 200 million years. And then we use the laws of modern chemistry and geologists. But the problem is they're both wrong and the physicysts were wronger,in fact the world is 4B years old and there are forces of nature which are far more powerful than chemical reactions.
ANd ye,okay? so... how did we discover this new force of nature. When it was through astronomy? We discovered nuclear fusion. It was through astronomy that we verified. Through astronomy that we got electromagnetism. Astronomy is the discovery of classical physics.
Theres great things left to e discovered. PRocesses that lead to the origin of life. It's not clear how life originatd on arth,espeically nce we see nothing here before life other than bacteria which is so complicated it couldn't be the first lifeform.
WHy do physics make life possible. When you do understand such things? You create new capabilities - new powers over nature that are created in understaning the true deeper laws of physics and biology. And beyond that, it is once again, science is the child of freedom. Its one of the children of freedom that freedom is most proud of. Science is the conquered demonstration in very material terms of why freedom is a good thing. Free thought, the truth about things, incredible possibilities. It's why.. he quotes someone...he says America without grander is not amerca. We are the nation of pioneers. THe pioneers of democracy and the pioneers of science. 1865 we thought people would go to the moon, and who won? Americans. And you look at the space age here. 26 space craft to mars, 21 successful by the americans,okay? that is 10 times American spacecrafts as all the world put together. This is something amazing, people see.
We are the vanguard of human expansion into space. We are the pioneers, no one else is going to do this. We can't abandon this. You know? Okay. As a boy I used to read a lot of classical literature. I'll always remember a speech at the endof the war of sparta. Your relatives are heros,what id they die for? For Athens? AN incredible city that allows people to be free which ahs resulted in arts, math, philosophy - the human mind penetrates the sequence of hte universe. Furture ages will wonder at us just as the present age wonders at us now.
Politics have been taken over by demihogs,and 2000 years from now people will still wonder at the usa. Do we need to stop being waht we are that makes us great? Peopel worth wondering at? Okay? And I say no. So the ting is this, okay? The fundamental issue is... do we stand for anything? The usa?are we just here to go to the mall and buy shit? YOu know...I belive we are here for a purpose. We are the waterer on the wall. Science. Part of that wall is space science. This is our part of the wall to defend. Our part of civilization to defend. We need to actualy do this. You need to go visit your congress in the home office and talk about this. This is an attack on the USA.
They want to de-orbit mars. They can't just leave it alone, they've gotta wreck it. Okay? THese are wreckers, this goes way beyond amercain science,medicine, national science foundation, the university system. Getting rid of all the foreign students? THey pay the tuitions. They're the ones payin the bill. You get rid of those kids? You're going to destroy American higher education. The opportunity. Or only upper class go to college. We can't have this. This is what is under attack.
You're entirely welcome to ... this group is here to defend the advanced, the human exploration and expansion into the solar system. This is our responsibility, you have to do this, we have to do this, and I hope that you will do it hard and strong. Thank you.
Thanks for those inspiring words! LOL i love this guy as a speaker. I don’t always 100% agree with what he says, but damn oh damn is he passionate, firey and amazing hahahahahaha. I love hearing him speak. Dr Zburin. I won’t write his name properly just cause you look look it up. Go hear/watch him speak. I don’t think it’d be as much just his voice. Watch him too (then listen later) hes the most fantastic public speaker. hahaha. Such a smart guy.
So the track sessions go start soon (the last guy didn't show up so he was able to give that good speech). Now, let's get me to the airport.
After that, I got going. It was a long complicated journey once you arrive at the airport, to get to your gate... so I'm glad that I had my time to get here and relax. What a full day and weekend, huh? Oof. And its only Saturday afternoon. But, that's livin' you know :)
I'll probably write some short reflection on the airplane and then the mission to mars was a complete success, right? It was all that was expected and beyond.
Will I return next year? Eeh... let's look at the flight prices. hahaha. Cause the hostel is cheap, the times were fun, and the skateboarding is amazing. At the same time, the skateboarding is best in the afternoon/evening, and that's a lot of the speeches, so - they're not the total best pair...skateboarding and mars, but. It was good to get that bonus.
Also - here are a bonus 8 events/things from this trip…it's time to do some reflecting. Maybe someone likes these words, maybe these messages will be useful to others. I just think the only difference between not doing it + doing it is a bit of effort. So, here we go. I want to write down the remaining notes. Tehse were the notes I wrote to myself on my phone over this weekend, when my laptop & notebook weren't within reach. A number of interesting moments happened, some I've already talked about - and some not yet. I just sometimes have random things happen throughout the day which are really special and monumental. Of course. We all do, but I want to share them here. For myself or whoever reads this today or in the future. Enjoy:
(1) - I wrote: The police stopped by the skatepark to watch for a bit my first night while I was there. I was the only one watching. The police just were chatting for a bit, then they walked over to the roller skate part. I saw one police officer do a little dance move spin on the roller floor, while they walked around. Seems they just want to enjoy the little things, too, underneath it all.
(2) - I wrote on Thursday: The best guy I've ever seen skating right now this morning. After he'd been skating for a long time I overheard him say its such nice weather. It's paradise! He yelled out. This guy is so good at every single little trick he does. Wow, and even on his way out, he nodded at me. He had a special spot on his bicycle for his skateboard. He was so talented. I want to live here hahahahha. I love this place so much.
(3) - I wrote later on Thursday: I gave a business idea to a lady selling Croc shoes charms. She had 4 for $10 on her sign, I told her to also write 9 for $20. She was like, "you're right! I like that 9 for 20." I said, "Yeah, people love choices and they always have a $20 on them if they have cash. They'll feel like its a deal compared to 4 for $10." She said, "I like that!" And I said, "I know. I walked by you earlier, but I had to turn back around and tell you." And then I just shrugged my shoulders and nodded and walked off. Hahah and she got back to texting.
(4) - I wrote too on Thursday: before that I met a nice skateboarder. He was borrowing another girl's skateboard and that stood out to me. He didnt' have a phone number or email, only Instagram, so I told him I'd make that GIF of him. I also shared some of my food with him because he said he was homeless. Been that way since he ran away at 13 years old. He was one of a few homeless youth I encountered & semi-befriended this trip.
(5) - on Friday morning I wrote: These skater girls were back again. One was the one who had loaned her skateboard to the boy the day before. As I was about to leave, she almost landed a trick then yelled out, "uugh! I am the problem" to her group of two friends,also skating with her. But I walked up to them and I just said, hey... you guys are amazing and its human nature to be terrified of this. Going down a hill on that and thinking you'll survive. So, you're not the problem. There's no problem, you're human. But, if you want it - you're the solution. I just saw the way they were vebally attacking themselves for not achieving these tricks, but their mindset was wrong. This is what i'm learning from talking tih Ai a lot too hahaha. LEarning that a lot of fear, guilt, all this stuff - its so human. I told her if you wanna figure it out you will. BUt you guys need to hear this outsider perspective. They thanked me, asked my name, and I shared it but head out.
(6) Friday I also wrote: I met a guy on the bus who told me there are many gangs. Seattle has homeless, LA has gangs. And he was hit by a drunk uninsured, undocumented driver… and then got no pay. No help for his injuries, dental work (he’s missing teeth) and a lot more. Unreal
(7) Friday night I wrote: I got onto the train and there is music playing so loudly on both sides. On the side I chose a guy is playing music that says, "somebody please wake me up". He has his bike. Next a guy next to him suddenly falls over. He was older, maybe on some drugs or just tired. He fell over on the subway and hit his head. I saw him get back up and he was rubbin his head after, like it hurt. I tried to give him some support with my eye contact, but also not too much. YOu know. That balance. But then the homeless guy who helped the other homeless guy up (The one playing music) started yelling at my side of the train. There were 3 boys and 1 girl sitting near me. He starts yelling at us saying, "I don't care waht you say. Sorry ass mother fuckers. I'm a homeless person, and i helped him. Where were you? Do you have something to say? Straight up. Ask somebody. I want to hit someobody" I didn't know who he was talking to but I didn't look up and just wrote what he was saying. I understand his cry and his argument, but idk if he's speaking to me. I feel like I'm a scrawny woman and helping out in that situation isn't very safe. In a new city. I have to be cautious. He yells and says, "Y'all don't know shit. I can't stand mother fuckers like you. Call the police I don't care. I'll know you snitched." I mean, but what he's saying outloud I had kinda been thinking earlier. Like, who helps someone when they get hurt like this -you know? There's hardly anyone to help. In a bit he gets off the train and then takes a huge spit onto the 3 guys by me. We all talked after for a bit, actually they degratded he girl they had with them, talking her down a lot and belittling her for not offering hand sanitizer sooner. Their attitude towards her was so disreepctvful.But,anway. Wild night.
(8) - Saturday morning I wrote: "You're gonna miss the sun in seattle huh?" a homeless guy said this to me after I went up to say bye to the skater guy i'd met. He gave me a hug bye as I said I'm heading back. The homeless guy yelled out to me and I turned back to him and said yea... (about missing the sun) I told him, "i'm going to miss all of it". He said, "just close your eyes and remember" and he had a huge grin and gave it to me through his sunglasses. I looked back and smile at him too while walking away, but the moment I turned my head forward I burst into tears. I will miss it. It's hard to remember how good it feels. But as I write this outside, its warm from the sun on my right side, and cool from the breeze on my left size. And I can hear locals cheering on each other for landing impressive tricks. I'll pack up now and head out to mars. One final time.
Overall I leave this trip with a meaningful but different feeling than last time. Last time I left venice I as completely shook up. I saw and learned a lot. Now I returned knowing what I know, and found more hope, progress, change... on a few fronts. Both returning to the Mars front and the Venice front.
Until next time, take care :)
OVERALL EVENT REVIEW Elaborated:
Venue (4/5), the skate park is amazing, the hostel is great, and that campus is NUTS. amazing architecture. OLD WORLD STORY over there.
Food (5/5), YEah - I mean, we’ll cut ahead but I felt like a 100%
Speaker Content (4/5), Lots of good speeches, but some wasted time, too.
Networking (2/5), I befriended a 3yo
Likeliness to Return (3/5), let’s see - no clue. I wanna say yes, but I realize “no” is possible, too. I spent a lot of time on this trip trying to learn about Mars, you know? But… idk how much I took away hahah. But we can try again. I’ve got the lifetime membership and Mars is hanging out.
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time.
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
