I made it through my first full week of living and working in California, If you look in my featured photo you can see the plethora of caffeinated beverages on my desk haha. All generously provided by the company. The kitchen is quite amazing. I have never seen anything like it at a company before. Oh, and both computers are mine to work with. I use one for doing my 360 content and the other for everything else. It was actually quite an amazing week. I started my internship project of working with Virtual Reality and the disabled community, and my first day I sent out emails to find people who might want to participate. By the next day, I had 5 people all lined up and ready to go. I am now in the process of calling people and lining up meetings to take the technology to them and get things going.
If you go to my Youtube channel there are many 360 videos, that if you get a VR headset you can actually watch as if you are in the video. It is really cool to watch the paragliding videos and be able to look down and up and all around as if you are actually flying. I even showed it to one person, who when they were watching it, their knees got weak and they had to take it off. It was that real.
Since starting this project I have become really interested in and excited about the possibilities of technology, like virtual reality and how it can improve lives. I have so many ideas that I can’t wait to try out or get involved in. I am even contemplating further education to be a researcher.
A lot of other cool projects are in the works while I am here too. I should be pretty busy for sure. I can’t wait until some things start coming together and I can report on their progress.
FXPAL is such an interesting place to work. It is fascinating talking to such intelligent people about all the things that are happening in the tech world and how the world could be changed by these things. I have had so many ideas of my own since being here that I wish I had more time to make them all happen. You never know though, I could still work from Maine or something and make things happen. It is just much easier out here because it’s all here already. As I was telling my brother when he asked about how I make all those 360 videos, I am in silicon valley so I have access to cool stuff. The camera I am using isn’t available in the U.S. yet but there are others that are if you want to make your own.
So California is actually a pretty nice place to live. The driving as I have mentioned many times is much different than Maine but doable. I met my roommates on the first day of course and you will never believe this. One of my roommates actually knows someone from my hometown, Patten Maine. Then I went to the local park for 4th of July and met a man that was born in Milliken Medical Center in Island Falls where I used to go to doctor Blum. The man also lived in Sherman Maine until he was about 5. Like Sandy always says, I can’t go anywhere without meeting someone that is either from Patten or knows about it. So that was pretty cool for the first week here. I also found out a friend of mine who also uses a wheelchair, lives about 10 miles from me. He invited me to a car show that his car club was putting on today so I went and met him there. We are going to do lunch sometime and talk more.
This was definitely the right decision for my life and career, to come out here and make it happen. As I have mentioned before it is tough leaving people at home that you care about and I noticed that today at the car show. I kept wanting to say stuff to Sandy and the boys about what I was seeing because I know, at the least the boys, would have been interested haha.
I am so grateful for the opportunity that Don Kimber and FXPAL have given me and I can’t wait to show you what is going to come out of it.
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