Turkey and Time Machines

I may not be on campus as I write this blog entry, but I am nonetheless linked back to Carolina. Currently, I'm hard at work on a project where I hope to detail what life might be like in the years 2021, 2061, 2111, and 3011. While it all may seem like fun and games, this is a complex research project I've undertaken for my Computer Science class (Advanced Cyberculture Studies). If you've read any of my other posts you'll already know that I am a fan of the future and of technology. I'm even trying to create my own second major: Digital Cultures, so I can get a degree for studying what I truly love.

At the top of this post you'll find a concept vehicle called the "Elf", an ultra-efficient electric vehicle that may transform our lives and our city streets in the years to come. Imagine getting the equivalent of 1800 miles per gallon instead of 20 or 30. I've recently started interning with a company that seeks to build these machines and spread them throughout the world. I think that's a pretty fantastic goal, especially given the current climate trends and the necessity of environmental responsibility. For those curious, check out Organic Transit at www.OrganicTransit.com.

Opportunities seem to attack me with more frequency these days, as that is not even my only current internship. This just goes to show that UNC is a breeding ground for interesting and career-worthy activities. Subscribe to listservs and your dreams might come true. And that is a sentence you will not often hear/see.

Switching gears: Thanksgiving is supposed to remind us to be thankful; thankful for the bounty of food we consume that we are lucky to have, thankful for the health of the people that we are lucky to know, thankful for our life's station. Even in the chaos of shopping, I hope people can remember that what we have in the United States is very lucky. OccupyWallStreet is beginning to open the eyes of the nation and the world... and things aren't all peachy. People are hungry. People are jobless and homeless. If you can read this blog post, you are more fortunate than the majority of human beings in this world. You can read and you have access to the internet. You have the free time to spend it looking at a blog, and you have the personal safety necessary to own (or at least to operate) a computer. As a college student, I am among the luckiest people in the world. As a UNC student, the percentage only grows smaller and more selective. This is easy to forget and even easier to ignore.

So that's my challenge to you, reader... remember who you are, remember the world around you, and never stop caring for others. We are the 100% of the world and its our job as human beings to protect one another. It's ruthlessly simple. I only wonder why it took me going to college to understand all of this.