My Interests

I've posted my skills, now I'd like to post my interests, and what I hope to accomplish over the next few years.
(Twirls hair, oh wait, doesn't have enough hair to twirl)
I like movies, long walks on the beach, holding hands...
Wait, it gets better.
I like to watch people. I can sit in a mall and casually watch how people act and speak. I make mental notes, and it helps make my characters believable. I do the same with children and animals.
For that matter, I like working with kids. Years ago I did a stint with Junior Achievement, and had a blast with it. I'd like to go back to school to get an Education Degree so I can be a teacher.
What I'd really like to do is work with kids just like me, shy, but personable, and smart, to help them overcome their problems and to bring out some hidden talent.
Because I truly believe that every child has some hidden talent, just waiting for the right person to spot it and encourage it.
For me it was creative writing.
On the back of my latest book, the bio part, I put that my current projects include advocacy for the elimination of homelessness, and development of a 'learning station' for elementary-aged children.
This learning station would combine video, audio and the latest learning techniques into a touch-sensitive screen attached to the desk. Each child wears his/her own headphones, and the teacher can talk to individual students or the whole group with the touch from a finger.
There's more to it than that, and I've spent a great deal of time thinking about how I would accomplish this.
I have not made up my mind, for instance, whether to use an existing operating system, like Windows or Linux, or develop the whole thing from scratch. Windows development would be easiest, but I think Microsoft has enough of a stranglehold on our children as it is.
More research is obviously necessary.
Other interests include astronomy, fencing, bowling and flying (if I can overcome a fear of heights). I've imagined myself as an astronaut, but the reality is I'd probably lose my lunch during the training, and want to break out of my suit due to being claustrophobic. I use that to great effect in book IV of my series, which is still being re-written.
I have ideas like crazy, ideas about jobs/careers, inventions (but no mechanical aptitude) and especially the future.
I like to travel, and learn new languages. I'd like to go to Russia, China, Japan, California. I've been to most states, but not there. I'd love to see the Coleseum in Rome, because archeology is another interest, and paleontology.
But I only have so much time on this Earth, and so many resources, and right now I have to concentrate on increasing those resources.