Skip to main content

MY LIFE: Part 3a

But I'll start with the New York Knicks.  According to the New York Times, the Knicks gave their city something new, IMPOSSIBLE JOY. 

It is different because New York’s mass unifying events tend to imply unbearable tragedy: 9/11, Sandy, Covid.

Their best player, Jalen Brunson, was small (for basketball), underestimated (by his last team), conditioned (by his father, a former Knick) to know that winning here would mean more than winning anywhere else.

This place has cheated bankruptcy, built (and rebuilt) towers, raised Jay-Z and J. Lo and J-Seinfeld. It has been told to drop dead and refused. It has elected a billionaire and a socialist and a Bill de Blasio. It has processed Donald Trump as a 20-something curiosity, a chattering pooh-bah, a steak salesman, a defendant and a president whose attendance in Game 3 had Knicks maniacs of all political persuasions wondering about an executive curse.

Then from Sports Illustrated:

Some of the greatest athletes in sports history have worn New York uniforms. Names like Namath, Messier and Jeter. Taylor, Frazier and Rivera. Now, Brunson. Only three players—Bob Pettit, Michael Jordan and Giannis Antetokounmpo—had scored 45 points or more in a Finals closeout game. Brunson made it four. He kept New York in it in the first half, scoring 16 of the Knicks’ 37 points. He had 14 points in the third quarter. He had 15 in the fourth. San Antonio threw everything at Brunson. Size, length, athleticism. Nothing worked. “Unreal,” said Mitchell Robinson. “Literally, unreal.”

The World Cup continues today with four games:


Ah, the frustration about the Iran War.  The memorandum of understanding to talk about possible peace was to be signed today, but Israel went ahead and bombed Beirut.  Yet, there might still be a virtual (meaning electronically) signing today.  

However, the UFC Freedom 250 fight card at the White House is a definite GO.

  • Begins at 8PM EDT.
  • Seven matches.  Click on this for details.
  • Unfortunately, you most likely won't be able to watch it, for it will only be streamed on Paramount+.  Why?  Read this.
  • I live at 15 Craigside, and our building provides free subscription to this channel.  Will I watch it?  Maybe.  Or maybe not.  Why?  Knowledgeable fans have indicated that the card is underwhelming.  
  • Who will attend?
    • 4,300 seats, with 1,200 reserved for active-duty military members.
    • Celebrities include Tom Brady, Adam Sandler, The Rock Johnson, Jason Statham, Guy Ritchie and Jered Leto.

The story of My Life began on 31May2026 after I realized that, after the age of 5, my life could be represented by three periods of 27 years:  education, work and retirement.

  • The average person spends the first 25 years as a baby and going to school, the next 40 years working and the final phase in retirement, generally only lasting for a decade or so.
  • I've been incredibly lucky, for, when I was born in 1940, my life expectancy was 61.4 years.  I'm soon to be 86, so that is nearly a quarter century after my supposed demise.  The life expectancy of a person born today depends on where you are born and gender.
    • Japan 85.1 years, but 88.2 if female and 82.1 male.
    • Globally, 71.2 years for males and 76.4 years for females.
    • Born in Africa, 61.5 years for males and 65.5 years for females.  
      • Another way of looking at this is that the U.S. life expectancies in 1940 were similar to what is so for Africa today.
      • Chad and Lesotho on this continent have the lowest life expectancy at 53.
    • Japan does not have the highest life expectancy today:
      • Monaco, around 88.
      • San Marino, close to 86.
      • Hong Kong, 85.8.
    • According to this source, the USA has a life expectancy of 77.4 years, the 49th highest in the world.
  • So thus far:
    • Part 1a:  Took me from the age of 5 to 18, when I went away to college.
    • Part 1b:  Began with my first job, with the Hawaiian sugar industry, but I count as an educational experience, because it built character, then graduate school leading to a PhD in Biochemical Engineering, completing my educational phase.
    • Part 2a:  My early life in the College of Engineering, where I taught and conducted research.  The First Energy Crisis arrived shifting my interest into renewable energy, and I spent some time at the NASA Ames Research Center on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
    • Part 2b:  Further teaching, then my experience at the Lawrence Livermore National Experience on Laser Fusion, followed by three years working for Senator Spark Matsunaga in DC, creation of the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, establishment of national centers at the Hawaii Natural Institute in Hydrogen, Seabed Minerals and Marine Bioproducts.  Much of this led to development of the Blue Revolution.
So today, Part 3 of My Life, my retirement period, now in year 27.  Let's see now, if I live a fourth 27-year period, that will bring me up to 108, a not impossible, but highly improbable prospect.  But who knows, maybe there will be final post-retirement posting in 27 years.

To begin retirement, the year is 1999, I had been working at the University of Hawaii for 27 years.  I was 59 years old.  Why would I retire?  I was in good health, loved my job, and the administration and my staff wanted me to continue on.
  • My wife and I decided that this was a good time to try something else, and retirement was that best option.
  • We were somewhat worried about our coming financial status with no job, but it turned out not to be a problem.
  • We had paid off the mortgage for our two-floor penthouse at 2101 Craigside, and had no serious bills.
  • Life went well, to us, better than our work years.
  • Took a few trips.
  • She spent time with her friends on handicrafts.  
  • I initially joined two golf courses as a member.  One in particular, the Koolau Golf Club, had a reputation as the HARDEST golf course in the world.
    • I usually played by myself here.
    • Walked, carrying my bag and clubs.
    • Golfers were mostly financially secure, so used the most expensive golf balls.
    • I remember taking a friend from Japan and his father out.  They each lost ten balls....on the first hole.
    • I lost a lot too, but carried a shopping bag with me and knew where others lost balls.  Found so many that I had a large waste bin with maybe a thousand balls.
    • I took another colleague from Japan, who headed the Kansai fishermen's group that got $2 billion from the Japanese government to allow build two runways into Osaka Bay.  
      • He got a hole in one.
      • Put me on their board with a monthly stipend, which went on for a decade.
    • In other words, life was grand.
  • The University of Hawaii allowed me to maintain an office after retirement.  27 years, and I'm still there on the Manoa Campus.  Did not do much for the first few years, even though I was provided a pretty good monthly stipend to counsel other faculty members.  No one came in to see me, so I did not do much except mostly lunch and beer in my room.  Here is a video of my office on campus.
I embarked on an $18,000 (just expenses) trip in October and November of 2005 to Reunion Island, located in the Indian Ocean, then going on to Paris, Oslo, Bergen and London. The expense was high because there were some paid upgraded segments. This was certainly in the top 10 of worst and best trips, showing enormous promise for future interaction (see The Free Hydrogen Age and the Blue Revolution in Book 1). Mauritius was a late add-on, and a pleasant one.  They are my hope for the Blue Revolution.
  • Fully paid by a source I don't today remember.
  • Went to Le Reunion to give a keynote address at an energy conference.
  • In day 3 of the conference, attendees were told to meet at 8AM to go on an overnight trip.
    • Told to bring a gallon water.
    • People had hiking boots.  I wore slippers.
    • We were to hike through a jungle to a solar energy site, and stay overnight.
    • Mosquitos were prevalent, and they gave each of us some spray to minimize bites.
    • Also provided a loaf of French bread with some cheese, which would be all we'd consume for the trip.
    • I feigned a heavy cough and talked them into sending me to a fabulous French hotel at top of their only mountain to avoid the town mosquitos.  They agreed.
    • Great food and no mosquitos.  Stayed up there for three more days, and they sent someone to pick me up and take me back because I was an important guest.
    • On the final day I gave my lecture.
      • A group from Mauritius was there, and they liked my Blue Revolution concept, something that had some potential for them.
      • They asked if I could come to their island for a few days to provide advice and give the same talk.
The flight from Mauritius to Paris was, courtesy of Arjoon Suddhoo, in First Class, and wonderful. However, I soon noted that virtually every notable location we flew over started with an M: Mauritius, Madagascar, Mombasa, Mogadishu, Misratah, Mediterranean Sea (and several other seas, which, when you approach Italy, become Mer, for Sea), between Marseille and Monaco, at which point I began to get worried. I still had that M Curse in my mind. Clearly, this was a clue that the plane would be hijacked and flown to Munich, or, more probably, Moscow. However, as we approached Paris, riots were still going on, and the city was, indeed, burning. The civil unrest was worrisome, so I immediately transferred planes at Charles De Gaulle for Oslo.
There have been other experiences in third chapter of my life in episodes to come.
-
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment