Thoughts from Aloft

Hello world. Welcome to my new blog, Thoughts from Aloft. First, a word of introduction. I’m Matthew Gjedde: a seventeen-year-old high school senior, with a wide variety of interests. You may know me from Twitter, where I’ve tweeted as @mdgjedde 12,697 times now. Twitter is a great social media outlet, but sometimes things take more than 140 characters to adequately describe. Thoughts from Aloft is my solution.

About that “wide variety of interests.” Some are highlighted below the blog title. My aviation interest has been nearly life-long: having an airplane in the family does help with that. I’m learning to fly as well, in the aircraft you see pictured above. The photograph, by the way, was taken this past July at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. For those unaware, Oshkosh calls itself “The World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration.” And it is…ten thousand airplanes descend on this Wisconsin town every summer. For the last eleven, I’ve been there; the last four, by airplane.

On to technology: I love it, pure and simple. There exist photos of me at around age two sitting at a computer, and that interest has only grown and developed with time. Every kind of technology seems to interest me. The original fascination with computers has easily expanded to include the mobile devices that have entered the arena in the past few years. My use of iOS devices pre-dates the App Store, and I’ve been an iPad user since release day one.

Photography is another of my major hobbies. I’ve been taking pictures in some form since late 2004, when my first digital camera arrived on Christmas morning. Of late, I’ve been loyal to Canon products, finally switching to an SLR at the end of last year. I don’t take pictures of people; rather, my favorite subjects are airplanes, nature, and urban scenes, especially at night. On this blog you can expect to see examples of my work. Some can be viewed now: simply click the Flickr logo on the bottom right of the blog homepage.

Auto racing, namely NASCAR, is another one of my interests. I’ve followed the Sprint Cup Series since around 2009, with increased interest during and after 2010. This season, I’ve been following and enjoying the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series schedules as well. My primary team loyalties lie with Roush Fenway Racing and Penske Racing. My number one favorite driver is Trevor Bayne…having followed his career for some years, I vividly remember the 2011 Daytona 500 that he won.

Other interests of mine include politics, flight simulation, and radios. You will see references to all three here from time to time. However, the primary topics will probably be those described in greater detail. Sometimes I will focus on travel and outdoor experiences I’ve had, other times, random subjects I can’t guess at right now.

Thanks for taking the time to visit this blog, and I truly hope you will enjoy following it as much as I will enjoy writing it.

~ by Matthew Gjedde on October 9, 2012.

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