"Virgin Galactic Flight 136 for Europa now boarding at Astralgate 16"

Months ago, I had been loosely following the Ansari X Prize competition. For those that aren't familiar with the X Prize, it was a competition to see who could build a privately funded reusable spacecraft, launch it into "orbit", return to earth and then repeat the launch, orbit and return. The winner would be the first private group to ever reach space... and would receive $10 Million.

The reason for all this, beyond the geeky reasons of just doing it...

Tourism. Yes folks, forget that criuse. Don't worry about that train trip. Why go to Yosemite when you can hit the ice covered fun of Ganymede? Don't want to go that far? Why not just take a jaunt to the Moon for the weekend.

What brought this topic on? Well, I was running though my morning news on MSNBC.com and ran across this:

FAA outlines guidelines for space tours

The Federal Aviation Administration has started discussions about guidelines for space tourism. Is this a good thing? I dunno. When I was in elementary school and Jr. high, space stuff was all the rage and I thought it was really cool. We spent years trying to figure out how we could get into SpaceCamp. A trip on the shuttle would have been a cool thing. Yes, even at one point, I was considering the Air Force Academy to lead toward being an astronaut. (I had the grades, but other things got in the way and the idea fell to the wayside.) After all those years in school, Astronomy is still the only kind of science that I can really stand. So the prospects of being able to vacation in space has a certain level of appeal. Stargazing out there would be tres cool. And it seems that it's close to being a reality. Why? Well, look here:

Yes, that's right. Move over Boeing. Baibai Airbus. And who needs "Atlantic". Virgin is prepping to take the world (or at least those with the cash enough to try it) into the stratosphere and beyond with Virgin Galactic. According to the website, they're planning to start trips to outer space in 2-3 years. Yes, before 2010, you can be chilling in at Rudy T's on the Moon.

Will it really happen though? Really, only time will tell. Until last year, it was virtually impossible. With the advent of the X Prize and the winning ship, SpaceShipOne (yes, very original name... I wonder how long the marketing guys took to come up with that one...), we're a step closer. Now all we need is some type of sub-space portal and we'll all be set.

Yeah. See you Space Cowboy.

"Crazy Little Thing Called Strange" or "To Free or Not To Free"

It's been a strange morning... Amusing, yet strange.

Work's being slow. Nothing truly new there.

Got my taxes done last night. The benefit of being out or work for most of the year is that you get all you taxes back. Refund is going to be good this year. Going to get some things paid off with all that cash. Yes, some of you know who you are.

My roommate Dave has informed me that the Maintenance doods at the apartment are in the process of replacing our old, 1970s-era stove. Tres cool. Cooking will be good again.

But the strange comes in here. Been talking and seriously thinking about business stuff again for the last few days. The more I think about it, the more I know I need to just do it. I want to be able to, within the next year, be able to move back to Chicago and set up shop for the magazine. My obstacle? I'm a poster child for Demotivators. It's hard for me nowadays to get excited about work. Yeah, I've been doing this for 15 years now. Running the magazine would be a change. The hard thing for me is that I know that my business sense sucks. Im an alright manager. I do a decent job on the production side of things. But I've made a living off doing things for free. Yes, I made a joke about that they other day. I put the "free" in freelance. My problem with freelance work is that I'm more concerned with being able to help someone than I am about getting anything out of it (contrary to some people's beliefs.) The challenge of the problem is all that matters. If there's some compensation, that's cool, but that's not what I look at most times when I walk into a project. And I know that's not good for "business". One of my good friends, Lorraine (of Elfquest, ADV and Oni fame) once told me "Stop working for free!" on my Team Elfquest-20th Anniversary poster. Back in 1998. Yeah, I know, but habits are hard to break. It's been 7 years since she told me that and I'm still a sucker for the free project.

But I'm getting to the point where, after doing graphics for 15 years, I need to make a change. I need to find the energy to get off my butt and make this work. I've had the goal of seeing the name of the company on the side of a building... big lighted and/or neon sign... for what seems like forever. I've made little advances toward that, but nothing life-changing or earth-shattering. I want this to work. I know it can. 2006 is the goal. Just need to make sure that I stick to it and keep things going, despite the fact that it's easier to slack off.

2006. Animetro Studios, LLC. Chicago, IL. I don't think it's an option anymore. I know I need to do it. I'm sure I'll need help along the way though. Yes, you all know who you are there too. :)

I'll end my musing now, before I start to get overly long-winded or venture into the sentimental...

Yeah. That one's for free. Heh. :P

[ audio | Livin' On The Edge > Get A Grip > Aerosmith ]

Heya everyone!

In keeping up with Richard and Wendy, I figured I'd add something here for me as well. Probably not going to be as exciting as thier blog will be, but if any of you out there in Webland ever get a hankering for some boring reading, come on in. I'm sure I'll have something to babble about from time to time... So, welcome and enjoy!

Oh, and for those that want to see "What Has Come Before", you can hop over to my LiveJournal, Ramblings of the Star Fox, if anyone is curious about the earlier posts. I have a tendency to post to the LiveJournal much more, but it's usually a lot more generic and uninteresting, so I'll try to remember to cross post the "intelligent" stuff here. Once I get it into a routine, I'll be ok. I'll probably forget for a bit though. My apologies in advance.

--Tim--