To members of the LGN (Leadership Greater Nashua) Class of 2012-13:

Wow, it feels good to say that!

After weeks and weeks of studying applications and conducting interviews, Deb Titus and I are very excited to officially welcome each of you into the LGN program for 2012-13. We have both watched this program continue to improve and evolve over the past six years, and the group of candidates being accepted into this next year’s program is nothing less than spectacular.

Within your class is a broad diversity of industries, personal backgrounds and views, professional experiences, and company sizes…all of you united by one theme: your personal desire to become more engaged in the greater Nashua community and help take it to the next level. This is exciting and I can’t wait for all of us to start on this short journey, together.

I want to personally congratulate each of you again on your desire to leave an imprint on our community through this LGN program, and we congratulate you on your acceptance into the 2012-13 class!

Four and a half years ago when I left Southern California to begin a new adventure on the East Coast, I had no idea what to expect or what I was getting myself into. The first year was rough – I found myself homesick, lonely and depressed by the long winters I’d never experienced before. Today I’m thankful for that time because it made me hungry to become who I am today… and now, someone apparently thinks I have what it takes to become a leader.

For those of you who are familiar with the program, I’m looking forward to joining your ranks. For those who I don’t know yet, I’m looking forward to getting to know you throughout the program. I’m humbled by the opportunity and to know that we have the chance to take Nashua and make it even better!

-Grant

It may come as a bit of a surprise that science and space score high on our fascination meters here at New Sky. Before John realized his passion for storytelling, he was studying to be a doctor. My wife is a middle school science teacher and I even went to Space Camp for three years as a kid. Suffice to say, Curiosity landing on the surface of Mars is a big deal to us. Sure, we’ve already landed probes on The Red Planet and they both have and continue to send back really important information about our closest neighbor. So why is this particular event exciting? It’s exciting because it signifies the forward movement of our country. We’ve been weighed down by a shaky economy, war and political polarization for the last couple of years, but this is one thing that we can all stand beneath and look up at in amazement. The unknown links us human beings together no matter where we live or what we believe and so does the night sky (see time lapse above).

There’s no telling what else is out there for us to learn about and understand. Heck, there’s a lot that we don’t understand here on our own planet, but that’s what makes this life an adventure, right? And without adventure, this life would be a little dull.

Grant

New York City based Freelance Photojournalist, JB Reed and I got a chance to chat a little bit about the website he recently launched with a college-mate called ShowTheSpill.com.

The website, though simple, is set up to showcase BP’s live cam that is pointed directly at the wellhead. Originally, Reed says, the website was set up with the intention of having people project the image for others to see, but the main goal has evolved into simply putting eyes on the image. “On Meet the Press one morning, one of the guests was calling this the image of the year, so I thought, this is an important image to have out there,” said Reed of the image, “It’s such an unbelievable image, an image type that we’ve never had access to before.”

Today, ShowTheSpill.com has more than 1600 unique visits, but as the oil continues to plume from the well’s head, their hits are expected to continue to grow.

In Texas, the streaming video was the background to an interpretive dance. http://www.youtube.com/jostonedance

If you’re in New York, 25CPW will be projecting the image this week, possibly starting tomorrow night (June 15), otherwise, find someone to donate a projector for the night and go to town with this, literally.