Thoughts of -e^πi man - Tien Nguyen

Some of mankind’s greatest feats and accomplishments have come at the age of 23, where the fine line between wisdom and youth is slowly divided. The responsibility level is low enough to have an unlimited amount of freedom to take on whatever is asked and the mind is still fresh yet highly developed. Failure is more of an abstract idea than a reality, allowing for chances to be taken, rather than to let life and experience turn creativity into negativity.

In the past, 23 year olds have been able to:

• Win a Super Bowl. At 23 years and 9 months, Ben Roethlisberger in his 2nd year led his Pittsburgh Steelers from an underdog wild card team to win Super Bowl XL.
• Fail a business. At 23 years 6 months, Bill Gates’ first attempt at a business, Traf-O-Data, had failed leaving him with many important lessons learned, en route to the rather comfortable lifestyle he lives today.
• Get a first “real” job. At 23 Warren Buffet got his first job at Graham-Newman, after finishing his master’s in economics and receiving the first A+ professor Graham has ever handed out.
• Set NFL records that would stand for decades to come. Having just turned 23, Dan Marino, also in his second season threw for what stands to be a record 5,048 yards and 48 touchdowns–which would stand for over twenty years.

And…while I set out to create a much longer list when this idea came to fruit, and I’m sure there have been plenty others as well, but, darned if I’m going to do any further research. The point is I’m 23 and there have been other 23 y/os who have done a lot for themselves; and all I’m doing is writing in a blog.

Will I join among their ranks?

We will see in approximately a year…though, if I still am reminiscing on this very blog what it is I have accomplished at the big 2-3 while approaching 2-4, I probably have not made it in the top two of the Forbes 400 list yet..

Unsubstantiated, controversial, and completely unsupported theories in any and every category:

• Ohio St. will become the first university to win both the NCAA football and basketball championships, beating out Florida and UCLA will be runners up two years in a row
• American troops will increase its presence not only in Iraq but all over the Middle East, oil will rise to over $80/barrel, and may not even be bought and sold in dollars anymore
• Donald Trump will shave his head
• At least two major public companies with a market cap of greater than $40 billion will turn private
• George W. Bush’s approval level will drop below 20%
• George W. Bush will shave his head
• The Raiders will win 6 games after drafting Joe Thomas as their #1 pick and Troy Smith in the 2nd round following an MVP performance in the BCS Championship game
• The 49ers will win 11 games on route to the divisonal championships
• While in the UK, I will end up passed out one night in the grassy knoll of Canary Wharf after a wild night with a group of crazy Brits
• However I will not have my head shaved
• Prison Break will win best TV Series in whatever award ceremony that they’re nominated for
• I will own a PSP at some point
• You will realize this blog is worthless and never return
• At least 75% of the list above will be completely wrong
• Kanye West will make an idiot out of himself on national TV
• North Korea and Iran will be highly credible threats for using nuclear weapons
• Pandora will become the internet’s next big thing

In college, the more or less typical stimulant and depressant of choice were cheap domestic beers/liquor, and Red Bull/Monster energy drinks respectively. For many, they were often not used in moderation, but abused to completely transform one’s state of mind twice over. They would be used late at night, for rather completely different purposes-though they could also be combined to provide the best of both worlds.

Now I wasn’t really the type of person to break tradition, but I digress.

Skip ahead then from one’s undergrad years out into the paradigm of a “real world”, and caffeine in the form of coffee is used to wake one up in the morning, rather than keep one up through the morning.

Alcohol is less abused and used moreso in moderation, with the choice shifting over to wine in the evening hours, which, unless you go for the cheap stuff can get pricey to overdo.

Over the past month or so then, I’ve slowly transitioned from absolutely despising any sort of wine into the elitist type who enjoys swirling and sniffing his wine as much as the next person.

And as for my morning beverage, I like to start the day with a nice cup of cream mixed with sugar, with a little bit of coffee thrown in there as well, which doesn’t hurt the taste of my diabetic inducing beverage too much.

The most eventful year of my life is coming down to an end, marking both the end of a childhood that I certainly have few major complaints about, and the start of a future that I hope to have even fewer complains about.

In honor of the year that historians will look back on to and refer as “2006″, I am making that one step that every young adult makes at some point in their lives–moving from a web based 3rd party hosted blog into using 3rd party software hosted on my own domain.

Yes, I decided that after a year that marked perhaps my final year of complete freedom from responsibility, graduating from a world class university in a fairly rigurous program, traveling to more different countries than many people will have been in their entire lives, learning who I really am and discovering what my dreams truly are, and launching a career in the greatest city in the world–the only logical next step was to create something that the internet clearly doesn’t have enough of–a new blog.

I feel like an entirely new person already.

And props to you if you understand the title of this blog.