After I picked Jackson up from camp, after we ate a late lunch, and after he recovered somewhat, Jackson and I took the dogs off to the local school. As the two of them wandered around sniffing the butts of all the dogs around us, Jackson and I started throwing the disc around. Given my experience with throwing around the disc with the rest of my family, I had very low expectations of how this would go, but I figured I'd have a good time anyway: throwing around the disc even if I have to run for every throw coming nominally in my direction is always fun.

So, I handed Jax the disc and wandered a bit away, and let him throw.

The disc flew right to me. I didn't need to move a step to catch it. Okay, this wasn't going to be too bad.

A couple more tosses later, and my throw to Jackson went off target. He saw it coming, took a few running steps and launched himself into a beautiful full extension layout, grabbing the disc with both hands and landing as gently as one can from an 18" high textbook diving grab.

I stood there, jaw on the ground, stunned disbelief.

And then minor regret that I didn't have my camera out and ready for his spectacular dive.

The kid, on his second catch, managed a double handed layout.

I pulled the camera out ofter that and managed to catch a few pictures, not many spectacular, and none of them as great as that (need I say again? I do, because it was AMAZING) layout.

After a while, I stopped throwing backhand, and switched to forehand throws. After a couple of them, Jackson started trying trying to throw forehands. His throws were a little off, so I wandered close, and offered some tips. He switched his grip to a power forehand grip, then started snapping his wrist.

Two throws later, and he threw a perfect forehand into my gut.

And my jaw landed on the ground again.

Mom had told me that Jackson was an outdoor, loves to move sorta kid. I wasn't expecting him to be able to both listen and immediately implement suggestions he heard. He's like the perfect student. "Do this." "Okay, done." The kid was fearless when it came to his body. I've heard the stories about how he's fallen out of a dozen trees, and broken a third of a dozen bones following his older brother around doing things a person his size shouldn't be doing, and how, when you ask him to try, he does, and does with his whole heart, whole body, whole self.

But seriously, watching it in action?

I want a kid like this one.

After go go going all day, Jackson needed to rest.

I understand this need. I felt much the same way after the day. Still, we're not done yet!

Note to self, Jackson doesn't like spicy.

I could have hugged each and every person involved with Camp Galileo today after I walked into Jackson's classroom to pick him up, and saw these words on the wall:

Be Visionary
I envision a better world
I imaging things that don't yet exist
I believe that it's my place to turn ideas into reality

Be Courageous
I freely share my creative thoughts
I stretch myself to try new things
I embrace challenges

Be Collaborative
I value the unique perspectives of others
I build on the ideas of otehrs
I use my strengths to support the work of others

Be Reflective
I take the time to think about what is and what isn't working in my design
I think about how my work impacts other people and the world
I seek feedback to improve myself and all my work

Be Determined
I persevere until I have achieved my goal
I recognize setbacks as opportunities to learn
I know that innovation and mastery require effort

Talk about a manifesto for life, not just building games.

Last week, Jonathan made a comment about my collecting things. I suspect he made the comment more as an amusing observation than anything else, but it stuck with me. Though I don't collect physical objects, and am back to getting rid of stuff again, I certainly "collect" license plate numbers. I think the collecting of plates is more of an enjoyment of playing with numbers and letters and words, and the traffic I was stuck in when I lived in Los Angeles.

These days, I have found, more often than I would like to admit, that I hesitate to spend money when the currency I'm holding has an interesting number sequence on it. It's rather like chasing the license plate holy grail of two characters, looking at currency serial numbers.

If I ever manage to find one with only two numbers on it, or even one number on it, I'm 100% sure I won't be able to spend it.

In the meantime, however, I'm okay with just photographing it and spending it.