Our friend, Thad Roberts, was asked to speak at a TEDx conference in Boulder, Colorado on Aug. 7th, 2010. When Thad told us about this many months ago, we all said "Road Trip!"
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| Image courtesy of TEDxBoulder |
(8/5/10)
There were seven of us that met up and drove from Salt Lake to Denver. Before our adventure began, we fueled up at Cafe Rio, one of our favorite places to eat.
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| Salem, Yoshi, Amjith, Dave, Angela, Greg, (and Thad is behind the camera) |
About half way to Boulder, we picked a hotel to rest at for the night. We all squished into one room, and it felt like a grown-up slumber party. No pics. Sorry, what happens in half-way-to-Boulder stays in half-way-to-Boulder. lol
(8/6/10)
We made it to Chautauqua and checked into this sweet little cottage the TEDx organizers hooked up Thad with.
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| Salem & Greg |
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| Thad & Dave |
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| Greg, Dave, & Yoshi |
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| Greg, Joey, & Angela |
That night, there was an informal dinner at Pica's Mexican Taqueria that the speakers and the friends of speakers were invited to attend. During the dinner, we mingled, and even got to meet a few of the organizers of the event. Oh, and by the way, the organizers did a great job overall. Cheers to Andrew, George, and the rest of the team!
We spent the rest of the evening on Pearl Street. It's "the street" to go to. The place reminds me of San Franscisco (with the mime artists), a hint of Park City (due to some eclectic shops), and an art festival (because of the street entertainers). At that place, we met up with Joey, and eventually Matt.
Speaking of Matt, he owns a Tesla. Thad got behind the wheel and drove off into the night!
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| Matt & Thad in a Tesla |
(8/7/10)
Today was the big day! Angela and I decided to make breakfast together: bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, and fried egg IN toast.
Thad got word that his talk was now 18 minutes long instead of the 9 minutes he was told to prepare. He had to spend part of the day restructuring his talk, and then memorizing it! He did a great job! To summarize briefly: Thad's talk was about quantum space theory (QST). He talked us through visualizing eleven dimensions (way cool), and how this model explains so many of today's mysteries about the universe (wow!). Thad's amazing slides were done by Jeff, a man of many talents. We missed you there Jeff! As soon as I get the official video, I will post it here. For now, you may be interested in this website.
Two wonderful musical artists performed throughout the conference. Vienna Teng and Jonathan Spottiswoode. They each had a different approach to music, which I thought tied wonderfully into the theme of the conference: Truth and Beauty. Jonathan didn't hold back in his expressions, he made us feel uncomfortable, relaxed, and everything in between. He had raw emotion, which I equate with "truth." When Vienna opened her mouth and began her song, the audience was immediately captured by the beauty of her voice. It is a voice of purity, strength, and love. She started a cappella, with a Taiwanese Lullaby titled "Green Island Serenade." Her musicality took us places far away, and then gently brought us back to reality. At the end of the conference, the two musicians did several musical numbers together.
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| Jonathan Spottiswoode & Vienna Teng |
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| Thad & Vienna |
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| Yoshi & Amjith |
That night we celebrated with a house party. Our top secret discussions won't be revealed here, but we had a great time. At about 4am, Greg, Salem, Dave, and I took a walk around the neighborhood. We saw a fox around the premises, checked out the nigh sky (it was a good night and location for star gazing), and pretended to be ninjas - it must have worked because no one saw us!
Here is one last group picture before several of us start our journey back to Salt Lake.
Again, Thad is the photographer.
As Salem, Greg, Amjith, and I headed back, we stopped by one last Mexican restaurant to complete our adventure. The food was phenomenal!
On a random note, I have to say that we ended up buying a lot of energy drinks (please don't ask why!), so I drank two. I was fascinated by the tabs, so here they are for your viewing pleasure also. I'm sure you'll be able to identify the drinks!
All in all, a successful trip! If you'd like to know more about Thad and his lecture, visit his website at http://www.einsteinsintution.com.
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Awesome stuff! Love it!