Two years later; still in New York

It's hard to believe I am in 2008, and still here in New York. And sadly, I haven't really pursued what I came to do, which is use Google Earth to remind me firstly, of "where I've been", (second) within the context of history (buildings and city plans do change), and the context of my personal history (where i've been + who I am). Should I describe a bit about who I am, in the context of this project? OK.

My parents met at the NSA, where my father was involved in early satellite technology, star wars, and all the elements of cold war politics during his early career. He is still a staunch liberal and has a resume to prove it, as I like to think. He met my mother there, where she was a code-breaker. They were both Catholic - a city mouse and a country mouse. End (not quite) of story (for now).

My father's fascination with satellites continued throughout his life. I didn't realize until I was in my early 20s, but my father loved maps. He also spent a lot of time teaching me about chess, the night sky and constellations. Later on he went onto develop a patent:

US Patent 5559520 - Wireless information system for acquiring location related information

which is summarized as such:

"Abstract

An information system for automatically providing mobile vehicles with
information related to their geographical location and to provide routing
control information downloaded from a broadcasting or directed cellular
call source includes a GPS receiver and associated data storage unit. A
cellular packet data receiver is included to receive data with location
markers from a transmission source. The data from the data storage unit
and the received data with location markers is coupled to a controller
module which includes stored program controls to select data relevant to
the present geographical location and to provide centralized alerts and
local readout in the mobile vehicle of this information. "

It isn't GPS, but GPS for a moving vehicle... i.e NYC taxi cabs can thank him and a few developers at AT&T for this.

So, here I am. A close up of where I live. A voyeuristic peek into my habitation- prior to my actual habitation (I can tell by the color of the blinds). Where I am typing this blog post, and hopefully many more. This is not an invitation other than to view my world from a different perspective... hope to be back online and google earthing my whereabouts soon. Perhaps I have to thank my father for this ability. Perhaps I like to think there's some creativity behind the patent, some chance for art and exploration, and an opportunity to understand the complicated emotions of an inventor who freely gave away his ideas to a company so I could be here, looking at myself from a map. Thank you dad.